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Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Law
On The Interpretability Of Law: Lessons From The Decoding Of National Constitutions, Tom Ginsburg, James Melton, Zachary Elkins, Kalev Leetaru
On The Interpretability Of Law: Lessons From The Decoding Of National Constitutions, Tom Ginsburg, James Melton, Zachary Elkins, Kalev Leetaru
Tom Ginsburg
An implicit element of many theories of constitutional enforcement is the degree to which those subject to constitutional law can agree on what its provisions mean (call this constitutional interpretability). Unfortunately, there is little evidence on baseline levels of constitutional interpretability or the variance therein. This article seeks to fill this gap in the literature, by assessing the effect of contextual, textual and interpreter characteristics on the interpretability of constitutional documents. Constitutions are found to vary in their degree of interpretability. Surprisingly, however, the most important determinants of variance are not contextual (for example, era, language or culture), but textual. …
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 …
Hybrid Judicial Career Structures: Reputation Vs. Legal Tradition, Tom Ginsburg, Nuno Garoupa
Hybrid Judicial Career Structures: Reputation Vs. Legal Tradition, Tom Ginsburg, Nuno Garoupa
Tom Ginsburg
Scholars have distinguished career from recognition judiciaries, largely arguing that they reflect different legal cultures and traditions. We start by noting that the career/recog- nition distinction does not correspond perfectly to the civil law/common law distinction, but rather that there are pockets of each institutional structure within regimes that are dominated by the other type. We discuss the causes and implications of this phenom- enon, arguing that institutional structure is better explained through a theory of judicial reputation/legitimacy than through a theory of legal origin or tradition. We provide some preliminary empirical support for our account.
Deciding Not To Decide: Deferral In Constitutional Design, Tom Ginsburg, Rosalind Dixon
Deciding Not To Decide: Deferral In Constitutional Design, Tom Ginsburg, Rosalind Dixon
Tom Ginsburg
In designing constitutions, constitutional drafters often face constraints that cause them to leave things “undecided”—or to defer decision-making on certain constitutional issues to the future. They do this both through adopting vague constitutional language, and through spe- cific language that explicitly delegates issues to future legislators (i.e. “by law” clauses). The aim of this article is to deepen our understanding of this second, to date largely un-examined, tool of constitutional design. We do so by exploring: (1) the rationale for constitutional de- ferral generally; (2) the potential alternatives to “by law” clauses as a means of addressing concerns about constitutional …
Courts And New Democracies: Recent Works, Tom Ginsburg
Courts And New Democracies: Recent Works, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
Recent literature on comparative judicial politics reveals a variety of roles that courts adopt in the process of democratization. These include, very rarely, serving as a trigger for democratization and, more commonly, serving as downstream guarantor for departing autocrats or as downstream consolidator of democracy. In light of these roles, this article reviews six relatively recent books: Courts in Latin America, edited by Helmke and Rios-Figueroa (2011); Judges Beyond Politics in Democracy and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile, by Hilbink (2007); Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America, edited by Couso, Huneeus, and Sieder (2011); The Legacies of …
On The Interpretability Of Law: Lessons From The Decoding Of National Constitutions, James Melton, Tom Ginsburg
On The Interpretability Of Law: Lessons From The Decoding Of National Constitutions, James Melton, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
An implicit element of many theories of constitutional enforcement is the degree to which those subject to constitutional law can agree on what its provisions mean (call this constitutional interpretability). Unfortunately, there is little evidence on baseline levels of constitutional interpretability or the variance therein. This article seeks to fill this gap in the literature, by assessing the effect of contextual, textual and interpreter characteristics on the interpretability of constitutional documents. Constitutions are found to vary in their degree of interpretability. Surprisingly, however, the most important determinants of variance are not contextual (for example, era, language or culture), but textual. …
Comments On Law And Versteeg’S The Declining Influence Of The United States Constitution, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, James Melton
Comments On Law And Versteeg’S The Declining Influence Of The United States Constitution, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, James Melton
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.
The Empirical Turn In International Legal Scholarship, Tom Ginsburg, Gregory Schaffer
The Empirical Turn In International Legal Scholarship, Tom Ginsburg, Gregory Schaffer
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.