Download or read book Rights Before Courts written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2005-02-21 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the conventional wisdom that constitutional courts are the best device that democratic systems have for the protection of individual rights, Wojciech Sadurski examines carefully the most recent wave of activist constitutional courts: those that have emerged after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to most other analysts and scholars he does not take for granted that they are a "force for the good", but rather subjects them to critical scrutiny against the background of a wide-ranging comparative and theoretical analysis of constitutional judicial review in the modern world. He shows that, in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, their record in protecting constitutional rights has been mixed, and their impact upon the vibrancy of democratic participation and public discourse about controversial issues often negative. Sadurski urges us to reconsider the frequently unthinking enthusiasm for the imposition of judicial limits upon constitutional democracy. In the end, his reflections go to the very heart of the fundamental dilemma of constitutionalism and political theory: how best to find the balance between constitutionalism and democracy? The lively, if imperfect, democracies in Central and Eastern Europe provide a fascinating terrain for raising this question, and testing traditional answers. This innovative, wide-ranging and thought-provoking book will become essential reading for scholars and students alike in the fields of comparative constitutionalism and political theory, particularly for those with an interest in legal and political developments in the postcommunist world
Download or read book Constitutional Courts in the Process of Articulating Constitutional Rights in the Post Communist States of Central and Eastern Europe written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Constitutional Courts in the Process of Articulating Constitutional Rights in the Post Communist States of Central and Eastern Europe written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Constitutional Justice East and West written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2002-12-31 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can the power of constitutional judges to overturn parliamentary choices on the basis of their own reading of the constitution, be reconciled with fundamental democratic principles which assign the supreme role in the political system to parliaments? This time-honoured question acquired a new significance when the post-commumst countries of Central and Eastern Europe, without exception, adopted constitutional models in which constitutional courts play a very significant role, at least in theory. Can we learn something about the relationship between democracy and constitutionalism in general, from the meteoric rise of constitutional tribunals in the post-communist countries? Can the discussions and controversies relating to constitutional review which have been going on for decades in more established democracies illuminate the sources of the strength of constitutional courts in Central and Eastern Europe? These questions lie at the center of this book, which focuses on the question of constitutional review in postcommunist states, from a theoretical and comparative perspective. The chapters contained in the book outline the conceptual framework for analyzing the sources, the role and the legitimacy of constitutional justice in a system of political democracy. From this perspective, it assesses the experience of constitutional justice in the West (where the model originated) and in Central and Eastern Europe, where the model has been implanted after the fail of Communism.
Download or read book Importing the Law in Post Communist Transitions written by Catherine Dupré and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2003-03-14 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book,one of the very first monographs on the Hungarian Constitutional Court available in English, is a unique study of the birth of a new legal system after the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows that the genesis of the new legal order was determined by massive Western involvement and an unprecedented movement of export/import of law. Anchored in a detailed comparative study of German and Hungarian constitutional case law on human dignity, this book argues that law importation was a deliberate strategy carried out by the Hungarian Court in the early years of its operation. It explains how the circumstances of the transition and the background of the importers determined the choice of German case law as a model and how the Court used it to construct its own version of the right to human dignity. It highlights the Hungarian Court's instrumentalisation of imported law in order to lay the foundations of a new conception of fundamental rights. While focusing on the Hungarian experience, this book engages with international debates and provides an original theoretical framework for approaching the movement of law from the importers' perspective.
Download or read book The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post Communist Europe written by Herman Schwartz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the former Eastern Bloc countries, one of the most difficult and important aspects of the transition to democracy has been the establishment of constitutional justice and the rule of law. Herman Schwartz's wide-ranging book, backed with rich historical detail and a massive array of research, is the first to chronicle and analyze the rise and troubles of constitutional courts in this changing region. "Those who are interested in understanding the behavior of constitutional courts in transitional regimes cannot afford to ignore this important book. . . . [It] is fecund with hypotheses of interest to political scientists, and we are indebted to Professor Schwartz for his comprehensive analysis."—James L. Gibson, Law and Politics Book Review
Download or read book Central and Eastern Europe After Transition written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How have national identities changed, developed and reacted in the wake of transition from communism to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe? Central and Eastern Europe After Transition defines and examines new autonomous differences adopted at the state and the supranational level in the post-transitional phase of the post-Communist area, and considers their impact on constitutions, democracy and legal culture. With representative contributions from older and newer EU members, the book provides a broad set of cultural points for reference. Its comparative and interdisciplinary approach includes a useful selection of bibliographical resources specifically devoted to the Central Eastern European countries' transitions.
Download or read book General Principles of EC Law in a Process of Development written by Ulf Bernitz and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the basic principles underlying European Community Law? Although no one seeks a purely descriptive answer to this question, the discussion it gives rise to is of immense significance both for theoretical legal studies and for legal practice. Over the years, scholars have convened from time to time to re-examine the question in the light of new developments. This important volume offers insights and findings of the latest such conference, held at Stockholm in March 2007, and sponsored by the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies. The nineteen essays here printed are all final author-edited versions of papers first presented at that conference. Far from merely an updating of the First Edition, which marked a 1999 conference held under the same auspices at Malm�, this book is entirely new. It underscores the importance of discovering the emergence of new general principles--linked, indeed, to such fundamental continuing concerns as democracy, accountability, transparency, direct effect, good administration, and European citizenship--as they develop in such increasingly important areas as the following: core aspects of competition and financial integration law; the ongoing process of European constitutionalization; the application of general principles in the new Member States; the growth of European private law; the successive creation of a jus commune europaeum; and the instrumental function of the EC Court. There is also special consideration attached to such overriding issues as the gap-filling function of the principles within the Community legal system, and the implications of the use of a comparative methodology. The authors include both eminent, well-known experts, many of whom took part in the 1999 Conference, and representatives of a new generation of younger scholars in the field. For the myriad parties involved in the evolution of the European project from a legal perspective, this book serves as a watershed, a thorough inspection of the foundations as they are perceived and understood at the present moment. It is sure to be consulted and cited often in the years to come.
Download or read book Multiple Democracies in Europe written by Paul Blokker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-12-04 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an in-depth discussion and analysis of democracy in Europe, with a focus on the new EU member states, and makes an important and original contribution to the debate on the future of European democracy. Author Paul Blokker seeks to provide a critical reconceptualization of the notion of democratic political culture by developing a ‘multiple democracies’ theoretical approach. He draws on debates in democratization theory and normative political theory, and presents a cultural-sociological approach for the analysis of democratization and democratic regimes. This approach emphasizes the historical and cultural embedment of democracy, identifies a potential variety of ‘ethics of democracy’ that underpin democratic political cultures, and points to the significance of democratic imagination in the interpretation and recombination of such ethics. The book explores the relevance of this approach by analysing multiple political cultures and their role in the emergence of democratic regimes in three new member states - Hungary, Poland, and Romania - providing a detailed description and analysis of political cultures by means of the analysis of constitutional politics, constitutional texts, and political elite discourses, and the identification of distinct politico-cultural elements that distinguish these societies from each other. It will be of interest to students and scholars of democracy, European studies, post-communist studies, political theory and comparative politics.
Download or read book Constitutionalizing Transitional Justice written by Cheng-Yi Huang and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-11 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the complicated relationship between constitutions and transitional justice. It brings together scholars and practitioners from different countries to analyze the indispensable role of constitutions and constitutional courts in the process of overcoming political injustice of the past. Issues raised in the book include the role of a new constitution for the successful practice of transitional justice after democratization, revolution or civil war, and the difficulties faced by the court while dealing with mass human rights infringements with limited legal tools. The work also examines whether constitutionalizing transitional justice is a better strategy for new democracies in response to political injustice from the past. It further addresses the complex issue of backslides of democracy and consequences of constitutionalizing transitional justice. The group of international authors address the interplay of the constitution/court and transitional justice in their native countries, along with theoretical underpinnings of the success or unfulfilled promises of transitional justice from a comparative perspective. The book will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of Transitional Justice, Comparative Constitutional Law, Human Rights Studies, International Criminal Law, Genocide Studies, Law and Politics, and Legal History.
Download or read book The Impact of European Institutions on the Rule of Law and Democracy written by Matej Avbelj and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2010 the European Union has been plagued by crises of democracy and the rule of law, which have been spreading from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), catching many by surprise. This book argues that the professed success of the 2004 big bang enlargement mirrored the Potemkin villages erected in the new Member States on their accession to Europe. Slovenia is a prime example. Since its independence and throughout the accession process, Slovenia has been portrayed as the poster child of the 'New Europe'. This book claims that the widely shared narrative of the Slovenian EU dream is a myth. In many ways, Slovenia has fared even worse than its contemporary, constitutionally-backsliding, CEE counterparts. The book's discussion of the depth and breadth of the democratic crises in Slovenia should contribute to a critical intellectual awakening and better comprehension of the real causes of the present crises across the other CEE Member States, which threaten the viability of the EU and Council of Europe projects. It is only on the basis of this improved understanding that the crises can be appropriately addressed at national, transnational and supranational levels.
Download or read book Lustration and Consolidation of Democracy and the Rule of Law in Central and Eastern Europe written by Vladimíra Dvořáková and published by CPI/PSRC. This book was released on 2007 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book New Democracies in Crisis written by Paul Blokker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers whether the potential of democracy following the end of the Cold War was diminished by technocratic, judicial control of politics in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. It explores the complexities and drawbacks of modern constitutionalism by offering a comprehensive theoretical and comparative-empirical assessment of the status and role of constitutionalism in five new EU Member States. The democratization of countries in Central and Eastern Europe has been guarded by constitutions and constitutional courts. This book examines the implications of powerful courts and rigid constitutions for the democratic engagement of citizens and the political authority of politicians. Using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, the book analyses the historical emergence of powerful constitutional institutions in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The author argues that the democratic promise of 1989 largely lost out to a technocratic and top-down view of judicial control of politics – a state of affairs reinforced by EU accession. The current backlash in countries such as Hungary and Romania indicates that the realization of democratization to the extent initially expected might be ever more remote in some new democracies. New Democracies in Crisis? will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics, democratization studies, European constitutionalism, socio-legal studies, governance and comparative politics.
Download or read book Constitutional Rights After Globalization written by Gavin Anderson and published by Hart Publishing. This book was released on 2005-05-18 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constitutional Rights after Globalization juxtaposes the globalization of the economy and the worldwide spread of constitutional charters of rights. The shift of political authority to powerful economic actors entailed by neo-liberal globalization challenges the traditional state-centred focus of constitutional law. Contemporary debate has responded to this challenge in normative terms, whether by reinterpreting rights or redirecting their ends, e.g. to reach private actors. However, globalization undermines the liberal legalist epistemology on which these approaches rest, by positing the existence of multiple sites of legal production, (e.g. multinational corporations) beyond the state. This dynamic, between globalization and legal pluralism on one side, and rights constitutionalism on the other, provides the context for addressing the question of rights constitutionalism's counterhegemonic potential. This shows first that the interpretive and instrumental assumptions underlying constitutional adjudication are empirically suspect: constitutional law tends more to disorder than coherence, and frequently is an ineffective tool for social change. Instead, legal pluralism contends that constitutionalism's importance lies in symbolic terms as a legitimating discourse. The competing liberal and 'new' politics of definition (the latter highlighting how neoliberal values and institutions constrain political action) are contrasted to show how each advances different agenda. A comparative survey of constitutionalism's engagement with private power shows that conceiving of constitutions in the predominant liberal, legalist mode has broadly favoured hegemonic interests. It is concluded that counterhegemonic forms of constitutional discourse cannot be effected within, but only by unthinking, the dominant liberal legalist paradigm, in a manner that takes seriously all exercises of political power.
Download or read book The Judiciary in Central and Eastern Europe written by Zdenek Kühn and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-10-28 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most widespread problems in post-Communist countries is the quality of the judiciary. The book argues that these problems are intimately linked to the legal culture of Communist law, that an understanding of post-Communist judges necessarily requires an understanding of their Communist predecessors. There seems to be a deep continuity in the methods of legal reasoning employed by lawyers in the region of East Central Europe, starting in the era of Stalinism of the 1950s up to the current post-Communist period, which continuity is manifested in the problems of 1990s and 2000s. Communist legal culture and its aftermath provide an interesting analysis of the development of legal culture in a long-lasting system which was intellectually almost completely separated from the outside world. The book targets the judicial ideology, the conception of law, and the judicial self-perceptions, which are phenomena most likely to be contained in the deepest level of legal culture, that most resistant to change.
Download or read book Judicial Accountabilities in New Europe written by Daniela Piana and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on a highly challenging aspect of all European democracies, namely the issue of combining guarantees of judicial independence and mechanisms of judicial accountability. It does so by filling the gap in European scholarship between the two policy sectors of enlargement and judicial cooperation and by taking full stock of an interdisciplinary literature, spanning from comparative politics, socio-legal studies and European studies. Judicial Accountabilities in New Europe presents an insightful account of the judicial reforms adopted by new member States to embed the principle of the rule of law in their democratic institutions, along with the guidelines of quality of justice promoted by European institutions in all member States.
Download or read book Rights Before Courts written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-05-26 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a completely revised and updated second edition of Rights Before Courts (2005, paper edition 2008). This book carefully examines the most recent wave of the emergence and case law of activist constitutional courts: those that were set up after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to most other analysts and scholars, the study does not take for granted that they are a “force for good” but rather subjects them to critical scrutiny against a background of wide-ranging comparative and theoretical analysis of constitutional judicial review in the modern world. The new edition takes in new case law and constitutional developments in the decade since the first edition, including considering the recent disturbing disempowerment of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (which previously was probably the most powerful constitutional court in the world) resulting from the fundamental constitutional changes brought about by the Fidesz government.
