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Full-Text Articles in Law
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
We like to think that constitutions are expressions of distinctly national values, speaking for “We the People.” This is especially true of constitutional preambles, which often recount distinct events from national history and speak to national values. This article challenges this popular view by demonstrating the global influences on constitutional preambles. It does so using a new set of tools in linguistic and textual analysis, applied to a database of most constitutional preambles written since 1789. Arguing that legal language can be analogized to memes or genetic material, we analyze “horizontal” transfer of language across countries and “vertical” transfers within …
Fruit Of The Poisoned Vine? Some Comparative Observations On Chile’S Constitution, Tom Ginsburg
Fruit Of The Poisoned Vine? Some Comparative Observations On Chile’S Constitution, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Islamization And Human Rights: The Surprising Origin And Spread Of Islamic Supremacy In Constitutions, Tom Ginsburg
Constitutional Islamization And Human Rights: The Surprising Origin And Spread Of Islamic Supremacy In Constitutions, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.
Getting To Rights: Treaty Ratification, Constitutional Convergence, And Human Rights Practice, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, Beth Simmons
Getting To Rights: Treaty Ratification, Constitutional Convergence, And Human Rights Practice, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, Beth Simmons
Tom Ginsburg
This Article examines the adoption of rights in national constitutions in the post-World War II period in light of claims of global convergence. Using a comprehensive database on the contents of the world’s constitutions, we observe a qualified convergence on the content of rights. Nearly every single right has increased in prevalence since its introduction, but very few are close to universal. We show that international rights documents, starting with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have shaped the rights menu of national constitutions in powerful ways. These covenants appear to coordinate the behavior of domestic drafters, whether or not …
Beyond Presidentialism And Parliamentarism, Tom Ginsburg, Jose Cheibub, Zachary Elkins
Beyond Presidentialism And Parliamentarism, Tom Ginsburg, Jose Cheibub, Zachary Elkins
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.
Why Do Countries Adopt Constitutional Review?, Tom Ginsburg, Mila Versteeg
Why Do Countries Adopt Constitutional Review?, Tom Ginsburg, Mila Versteeg
Tom Ginsburg
The past few decades have witnessed a sweeping trend toward constitutional review. This movement is arguably one of the most important phenomena in late twentieth and early twenty-first century government. Yet the trend poses important puzzles of political economy: Why would self-interested governments willingly constrain themselves by constitutional means? What explains the global move towards judicial supremacy? Though different theories have been proposed, none have been systematically tested against each other using quantitative empirical methods. In this paper we rely on a unique new dataset on constitutional review for 204 countries for the period 1781-2011 to test various theories that …
When To Overthrow Your Government: The Right To Resist In The World’S Constitutions, Tom Ginsburg, Daniel Lansberg-Rodrigues, Mila Versteeg
When To Overthrow Your Government: The Right To Resist In The World’S Constitutions, Tom Ginsburg, Daniel Lansberg-Rodrigues, Mila Versteeg
Tom Ginsburg
On December 17 2010, a young Tunisian street vendor protesting an abusive police official set off a wave of democratic uprisings throughout the Arab world. In rising up against their governments, the peoples of the Arab Spring were confronting an age-old problem in political theory: when is it acceptable to rise up against an unjust authority? This question is not only of great importance to the peoples of the Middle East today, but was also of profound interest to the American founders and, through them, has informed the very basis of modern constitutionalism. It is perhaps unsurprising then that many …
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. …
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. …
Public Choice And Constitutional Design, Tom Ginsburg
Public Choice And Constitutional Design, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
This chapter reviews the literature on public choice theory and constitutional design, focusing in particular on the sub-discipline of constitutional political economy. The basic framework of constitutional political economy has been in place for several decades and has produced some important insights into particular institutions. Other institutions, however, have been ignored, and there is a relatively small amount of empirical work testing the propositions. The chapter summarizes the work to date and identifies areas for more attention in the future. The chapter first reviews the core assumption that constitutional politics are really different than ordinary politics, and the corollary that …
Commitment And Diffusion: Why Constitutions Incorporate International Law, Tom Ginsburg, Svitlana Chernykh, Zachary Elkins
Commitment And Diffusion: Why Constitutions Incorporate International Law, Tom Ginsburg, Svitlana Chernykh, Zachary Elkins
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.
Baghdad, Tokyo, Kabul . . . : Constitution-Making In Occupied States, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, James Melton
Baghdad, Tokyo, Kabul . . . : Constitution-Making In Occupied States, Tom Ginsburg, Zachary Elkins, James Melton
Tom Ginsburg
We identify and document instances of “occupation constitutions,” those drafted under conditions of foreign military occupation. Not every occupation produces a constitution, and it appears that certain occupying powers have a greater propensity to encourage or force a constitution-writing process. We anticipate ex ante that occupation constitutions should be less enduring, and provide some supportive evidence to this effect. Some occupation constitutions do endure, however, and we conduct a case study of the Japanese Constitution of 1946. We argue that it had a self-enforcing quality that has allowed it to endure un-amended for over six decades. Unlike conventional understandings of …
The Global Spread Of Constitutional Review, Tom Ginsburg
The Global Spread Of Constitutional Review, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
No abstract provided.
Ancillary Powers Of Constitutional Courts, Tom Ginsburg
Ancillary Powers Of Constitutional Courts, Tom Ginsburg
Tom Ginsburg
This chapter surveys powers of constitutional courts beyond the exercise of judicial review. It argues that the assignment of such powers is largely a result of the success of constitutional courts in their core role. More ancillary powers, however, risks destabilizing constitutional courts as they are drawn into major political conflicts.