Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

Constitution-Making: A Process Filled With Constraint, Donald L. Horowitz

Faculty Scholarship

Constitutions are generally made by people with no previous experience in constitution making. The assistance they receive from outsiders is often less useful than it may appear. The most pertinent foreign experience may reside in distant countries, whose lessons are unknown or inaccessible. Moreover, although constitutions are intended to endure, they are often products of the particular crisis that forced their creation. Drafters are usually heavily affected by a desire to avoid repeating unpleasant historical experiences or to emulate what seem to be successful constitutional models. Theirs is a heavily constrained environment, made even more so by distrust and dissensus …

The View Outside: What Kind Of Expression For Adolescents Outside The United States?, Edward J. Eberle

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Constitutionally Inspired Approaches To Police Accountability For Violence Against Women In The U.S. And South Africa: Conservation Versus Transformation, Christopher J. Roederer

ExpressO

In the summer of 2005, the United States Supreme Court in Castle Rock v. Gonzales and the South African Constitutional Court in N.K. v. Minister of Safety & Security overturned decisions from their appellate courts. N.K. drew on the Constitutional Court decision in Carmichele v. Minister of Safety & Security. All three were torts cases involving the duties of the police, their accountability to the public, and rights of women to be free from violence, and each depended on the respective court’s interpretation of its constitution for resolution. This article focuses on the comparison, or rather, the sharp contrast between, …

Foreign Law And The U.S. Constitution, Kenneth Anderson

Popular Media

The use of foreign law and unratified international treaty law by U.S. courts in U.S. constitutional adjudication has emerged as a major debate among justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for a majority approving the practice in the March 2005 decision of Roper v. Simmons, and Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer undertaking an unusual public discussion of the practice in January 2005 at American University law school. This article examines the arguments made by Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Breyer for and against the practice, setting them in the broader context of constitutional theory. It …

Free Exercise Of Religion In Germany And The United States, Edward J. Eberle

Law Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, Professor Edward Eberle provides a comparative overview of constitutional safeguards affecting religious freedom in Germany and the United States. Specifically the author analyzes the German and American approaches to the free exercise of religion within their respective constitutional systems. The result is an illuminating exposition that provides much insight for comparative and constitutional scholars.

In the years following the Second World War, religious freedoms in Germany developed along similar, individualist paths to those found in the United States Constitution. However, unlike the Constitution, the Basic Law's provisions touching on religious liberty are detailed and quite elaborate and …

Of Power And Responsibility: The Political Morality Of Federal Systems, Daniel Halberstam

Articles

In comparative constitutional discourse, Americans are from Mars and Europeans from Venus; we eagerly tell our European counterparts about the U.S. constitutional experience, but rarely do we listen when they talk to us about their own. Whereas Europeans routinely examine U.S. constitutionalism as an illuminating point of comparison or contrast, as Americans, we seem convinced that we have nothing to learn from looking abroad. This Article challenges that assumption. In particular, it argues that American courts and scholars have overlooked an important alternative to the dominant interpretation of the division of powers in the United States by ignoring the theory …

Reconstruction And Constitution Building In Iraq, A. Kevin Reinhart, Gilbert S. Merritt

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

I would like to thank Vanderbilt Law School and all of the many sponsors for the invitation, and especially the Foreign Service Legal Society whose officers worked so hard to put this together. I appreciate very much the opportunity to talk to you all about Iraq. I need to begin with sort of a prelude: the things that were part of my training are in a way irrelevant to what I was doing this summer. I was not there in a professional capacity, as an Islamicist; I was there instead as a volunteer for the International Rescue Committee (IRC). I …

School Privatization And Student Rights: A Comparison Of Canadian And American Law Regarding Searches And Seizures Conducted In Privatized Schools, David J. D'Agata

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Australasian Law And Canadian Statutes In The Nineteenth Century: A Study Of The Movement Of Colonial Legislation Between Jurisdictions, Jeremy Finn

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper considers the use between 1850 and 1900 by Anglo-Canadian legislatures of legislative precedents from the Australian and New Zealand colonies and argues that while a wide range of Australasian laws were considered by Canadian legislators, the most significant Australasian influences are to be found in mining law, electoral and constitutional law and land law The paper goes on to explore, by use of archival, parliamentary and published materials, the processes by which Canadian legislators acquired their knowledge of these Australasian initiatives. While governmental and institutional channels (including the Colonial Office) played a significant part in the transmission of …

Constitutional Design: Proposals Versus Processes, Donald L. Horowitz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Three Nixon Cases And Their Parallels In Malaysia, Myint Zan

St. Thomas Law Review

During the period from 1974 to 1982 the Supreme Court of the United States decided three cases in which the late Richard M. Nixon, the 37th President of the United States of America was involved as an appellant/ petitioner. All three cases decided by the United States Supreme Court bore the name of Richard Nixon in the title of the cases. This Article will attempt to discern some of the legal and constitutional issues which have arisen from these "Three Nixon" cases. Some of the issues in these cases would inevitably have arisen out of issues that are peculiar to …

Comparing Judicial Selection Systems, Lee Epstein, Jack Knight, Olga Shvetsova

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Kann Das Deutsche Verfassungsrechtsdenken Vorbild Fur Die Vereinigten Staaten Sein?, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

Mein Thema läßt sich am besten als Frage formulieren: Was können wir Amerikaner von der Erfahrung der Deutschen mit dem Grundgesetz lernen? Diese Frage wurde für gewöhnlich in der anderen Richtung gestellt, näm lich: Was haben die Deutschen vom amerikanischen Verfassungsrecht ge lernt oder was sollten sie von ihm lernen?

Restitution Regimes In Post-Communist Eastern Europe: A Legal Analysis, Sophia Von Rundstedt

LLM Theses and Essays

When the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe collapsed at the end of the last decade, the opposition, which had been united in their goal to defeat Communism, quickly disintegrated into a variety of factions. One of their tasks was to decide on enacting a constitution, in order to stabilize and entrench the new democratic institutions. Apart from establishing the legal framework for democracy, politicians had to develop strategies to convert the state-run economy into a free-market economy. Such a transition required as a first step the privatization of state property. Legal reform of property rights raises the question: …

Jewish Legal Theory And American Constitutional Theory: Some Comparisons And Contrasts, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In this article, Levine explores some of the ways in which Jewish law may shed light on issues in American constitutional theory. While acknowledging that there are fundamental differences between a religious legal system and a secular one, he attempts to show that certain conceptual similarities between American law and Jewish law allow for meaningful yet cautious comparison of the two systems. Part I provides a broad historical and analytical overview of interpretation in Jewish law. Part II of the Article offers a specific conceptual framework for comparing Jewish law with American law. Levine considers questions of flexibility in legal …

A Comparative Study Of The Jewish And The United States Constitutional Law Of Capital Punishment, Steven Davidoff

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The Jewish view on the death penalty is that it should exist but it should never be used .... [lI]t is Governor Pataki's job to ensure :order. But he must remember that as a leader he must exhibit attributes of both the father and the mother. Governor Pataki is a nice man. But if he acts on the death penalty, he will be the leader of a bloody government

Administrative Law: The Hidden Comparative Law Course, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

What does today's Administrative Law course give your students that you might not be aware of and might be helped by knowing? That, as I understand it, is the question I am to answer. But we may also want to think about the overall shape of the curriculum: it may be useful to ask about fundamental issues our students may not be aware of, that may not be dealt with elsewhere in the law school curriculum. I'll spend most of my time on the question I've been asked to address, but I hope you will accept a few sentences on …

The War Powers In French Constitutional Law, Elisabeth Zoller

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Punishment And Procedure: A Different View Of The American Criminal Justice System, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Exclusion To Emancipation: A Comparative Analysis Of Women's Citizenship In Australia And The United States 1869-1921, Linda J. Kirk

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Development Of Religious Freedom In Spain: An Historical Analysis, Daniel B. Montserrat

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

Religious freedom has always constituted a problem in Spain. It can be said that over the centuries, there has only existed intolerance and even on several occasions, persecution. Clearly, the times in which respect and peaceful coexistence occurred in Spain among the three principal religions were limited and fleeting. Unfortunately, even Spanish constitutional history is replete with examples of religious intolerance. From the Cddiz Constitution of 1808, liberal in its politics, but tremendously repressive with respect to religion up until the present day, there have been scarcely twentyfive years of "religious freedom." Recalling the period prior to the first constitution, …

The Constitutional Court: A Bulgarian Response To Obsolescent Law, David A. Levy

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Planned Constitution Never Got Written, But Israel Still Got Constitutional Law, Marcia R. Gelpe

Faculty Scholarship

Israel's development of constitutional law without a written constitution presents a fascinating picture of how a system, unable to develop a constitution in the usual manner, has developed one in another manner. It shows how innovative lawmaking can be - and sometimes must be - to maintain a democratic political system.

A Holistic Approach To Criminal Justice Scholarship, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Judicial Jurisdiction In The Conflict Of Laws Course: Adding A Comparative Dimension, Linda J. Silberman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Silberman suggests that comparative law materials can usefully be introduced in the conflict of laws course. She proposes the subject of adjudicatory jurisdiction as a good place to start. She argues that a comparison of the U.S. approach with the English and European approaches (particularly under the Brussels Convention) is evidence of the desirability of a jurisdictional system grounded more on rules and/or discretion rather than on a constitutional standard of reasonableness. She takes issue with the contention of her colleague Professor Andreas Lowenfeld that "reasonableness" has been accepted as an international standard for the assertion …

An American Perspective On Environmental Impact Assessment In Australia, Mark Squillace

Publications

No abstract provided.

Federalism In The Americas In Comparative Perspective, Keith S. Rosenn

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fundamental Rights In The "Gray" Area: The Right Of Privacy Under The Minnesota Constitution, Michael K. Steenson

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the constitutional aspects of Minnesota privacy law. Part II briefly explains federal privacy law to provide a baseline for consideration of privacy law in Minnesota. Part III examines the right of privacy as it has evolved in the Minnesota common law. Part IV evaluates the Minnesota Supreme Court's application of federal privacy standards and then examines the court's decisions that outline the right of privacy under the Minnesota Constitution. Part V concludes by raising questions concerning the potential application of the court's concept of privacy under the Minnesota Constitution as applied to two areas: same-sex marriages and …

The American Judicial Review Quagmire: A Canadian Proposal, Caroline S. Earle

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Divergent Models Of Public Law In Latin America: A Historical And Prescriptive Analysis, Nicholas D.S. Brumm

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.