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Full-Text Articles in Law
Constitutional Interpretation In Law-Making: China’S Invisible Constitutional Enforcement Mechanism, Tom Ginsburg, Yan Lin
Constitutional Interpretation In Law-Making: China’S Invisible Constitutional Enforcement Mechanism, Tom Ginsburg, Yan Lin
Tom Ginsburg
Abstract: It is conventional wisdom that China’s Constitution is unenforceable, and plays little role in China’s legal system, other than as a symbolic document. This view rests on the fact that the Supreme Court has no power to interpret the Constitution. The formal body with interpretive power, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, has never issued an official interpretation. Despite this apparent lack of enforcement, we argue that China’s Constitution indeed plays an increasingly important role within the party-state. It does through not through the courts but through the legislative process, in which formal requirements of constitutional review …
We The Peoples: The Global Origins Of Constitutional Preambles, Tom Ginsburg, Daniel Rockmore, Nick Foti
We The Peoples: The Global Origins Of Constitutional Preambles, Tom Ginsburg, Daniel Rockmore, Nick Foti
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.
Libertarian Paternalism, Path Dependence, And Temporary Law, Tom Ginsburg, Jonathan Masur, Richard Mcadams
Libertarian Paternalism, Path Dependence, And Temporary Law, Tom Ginsburg, Jonathan Masur, Richard Mcadams
Tom Ginsburg
The recent wave of behavioral economics has led some theorists to advocate the possibility of “libertarian paternalism,” in which regulators designing institutions permit significant individual choice but nonetheless use default rules to “nudge” cognitively biased individuals toward particular salutary choices. In this article, we add the possibility of a different kind of nudge: temporary law. Temporary law is less intrusive than permanent regulation, and is particularly attractive in situations in which we believe that path dependence has produced the status quo. We illustrate the argument with the example of smoking bans, and provide an empirical case study of an actual …
Getting To Rights: Treaty Ratification, Constitutional Convergence, And Human Rights Practice, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins
Getting To Rights: Treaty Ratification, Constitutional Convergence, And Human Rights Practice, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins
Tom Ginsburg
Abstract: This article examines the adoption of rights in national constitutions in the post-WWII period in light of claims of global convergence. Using a new comprehensive database on the contents of the world’s constitutions, we observe a qualified convergence on the content of rights, in which some rights have become more popular while the prevalence of others has remained relatively flat. We show that a very important mechanism for convergence has been the international bill of rights, which has had a powerful coordinating effect on the rights adopted by national constitution-makers. In particular, we show that ratification of the International …