Download or read book Constitutional Evolution in Central and Eastern Europe written by Alexander H.E. Morawa and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-14 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines EU enlargement by studying how domestic constitutional evolution in the new member states contributes to European integration. In contrast to the usual top-down analytical pattern, it reverses the paradigm by looking at constitutional developments and dynamics from the bottom-up, studying how domestic constitutional evolution contributes to European integration. The authors analyze constitutional trends from the perspective of 'new Member States' as policy-makers and not strictly as policy-takers. The issue of conditionality is also explored in a discussion of the extent to which pre-2004 and 2007 conditionality has had lasting effects at the level of constitutionalization of different areas and norms and if so, of what kind. The exploration of Europeanization effects in recent Member States substantiates and demonstrates how enlargement has been an important driving-force for the effective export of EU legal rules in this region. The book utilizes a comparative approach to highlight the merits and obstacles created by the growing diversity in the constitutional rules and patterns of the new Member States. It also contains a section that places the CEE constitutionalizing map in a broader comparative European and global context, establishing links with similar transitional regimes in the continent and elsewhere.

Download or read book Evolution of constitutionalism in the selected states of Central and Eastern Europe written by Krzysztof Prokop and published by Wydawnictwo Temida 2. This book was released on 2010 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Constitutional Evolution in Central and Eastern Europe written by Kyriaki Topidi and published by Ashgate Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines EU enlargement by studying how domestic constitutional evolution in the new member states contributes to European integration. In contrast to the usual top-down analytical pattern, it reverses the paradigm by looking at constitutional developments and dynamics from the bottom-up, studying how domestic constitutional evolution contributes to European integration. The authors analyze constitutional trends from the perspective of 'new Member States' as policy-makers and not strictly as policy-takers. The issue of conditionality is also explored in a discussion of the extent to which pre-2004 and 2007 conditionality has had lasting effects at the level of constitutionalization of different areas and norms and if so, of what kind. The exploration of Europeanization effects in recent Member States substantiates and demonstrates how enlargement has been an important driving-force for the effective export of EU legal rules in this region. The book utilizes a comparative approach to highlight the merits and obstacles created by the growing diversity in the constitutional rules and patterns of the new Member States. It also contains a section that places the CEE constitutionalizing map in a broader comparative European and global context, establishing links with similar transitional regimes in the continent and elsewhere.

Download or read book EU Enlargement and the Constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe written by Anneli Albi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-06-30 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of the EU's biggest enlargement, this book explores the adaptation of the constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for membership in the European Union. In response to the painful past, these new constitutions were notably closed to transfer of powers to international organizations, and accorded a prominent status to sovereignty and independence. A little more than a decade later, the process of amending these provisions in view of the transfer of sovereign powers to a supranational organization has proved a sensitive and controversial exercise. This book analyses the amendments against the background of comparative experience and theory of sovereignty, as well as the context of political sensitivities, such as rising euroscepticism ahead of accession referendums.

Download or read book Limits to Democratic Constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe written by Bogusia Puchalska and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Bogusia Puchalska develops an original theory of democratic constitutionalism and uses it to support the argument that constitution-making and law-making in constitutional moments should be politically, and not just constitutionally, legitimate. In doing so she expertly assesses the potential implications of the prospects of democratic consolidation and constitutionalism in Poland after 1989 and asks whether it is likely to be applicable to other transition countries such as Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. This original and informative book should be read by all curious to understand how the democratic learning and the foundations of grass-root constitutionalism might have been damaged in post-communist countries.

Download or read book Constitutional Review in Central and Eastern Europe written by Kálmán Pócza and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-02-13 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent confrontations between constitutional courts and parliamentary majorities in several European countries have attracted international interest in the relationship between the judiciary and the legislature. Some political actors have argued that courts have assumed too much power and politics has been extremely judicialized. This volume accurately and systematically examines the extent to which this aggregation of power may have constrained the dominant political actors’ room for manoeuvre. To explore the diversity and measure the strength of judicial decisions, the contributors to this work have elaborated a methodology to give a more nuanced picture of the practice of constitutional adjudication in Central and Eastern Europe between 1990 and 2020. The work opens with an assessment of the existing literature on empirical analysis of judicial decisions with a special focus on the Central and Eastern European region, and a short summary of the methodology of the project. This is followed by ten country studies and a concluding chapter providing a comprehensive comparative analysis of the results. A further nine countries are explored in the counterpart volume to this book: Constitutional Review in Western Europe: Judicial-Legislative Relations in Comparative Perspective. The collection will be an invaluable resource for those working in the areas of empirical legal research and comparative constitutional law, as well as political scientists interested in judicial politics.

Download or read book Constitutional Reforms and International Law in Central and Eastern Europe written by Rejn Avovič Müllerson and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 1998 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent developments in central and eastern Europe have changed the political landscape of the world. The dissolution of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the collapse of Communism in Europe, market reforms, and the processes of democratisation are all seminal events affecting not only the countries in transition but other states as well. All these changes presuppose fundamental legal reforms. In this process most of the countries in transition have adopted new constitutions where issues of participation in the international political order and questions of international law enjoy a prominent place. This book is one outcome of many research activities concerning these transitions in central and eastern Europe at the Centre of European Law, King's College London. It contains essays about constitutional reforms and international law by leading international judges and academics. It is edited by Mads Andenas, Director of the Centre of European Law at King's College London, Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Reader in International Law at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, and Rein Müllerson, Professor in International Law at King's College.

Download or read book Constitutionalism and the Enlargement of Europe written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-07-26 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the newly democratized countries of this region joined two main pan-European political and legal structures: the Council of Europe and the European Union. This book shows how the Eastward enlargement of these two structures fostered the 'constitutionalization' both of the Council of Europe and of the EU. Prompted by the enlargement of the Council of Europe and the admission of a number of countries which brought unique and often more substantial problems onto the Court's agenda, the main judicial body of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, became a quasi 'constitutional court' of Europe. This book demonstrates that this was primarily as a result of the widening of its agenda and the resulting need to make activist decisions about the compatibility of national laws with the European Convention. In terms of the EU, the book shows that the enlargement (first prospective, and then, actual) has been an important agenda-setter for the constitutionalization of the EU; in particular, for openly placing the issue of fundamental rights on the EU agenda as a legitimate and indispensable matter of concern for the EU. But the 'constitutional synergies' were a two-way street: the accession to both pan-European structures has also affected the development of democratic constitutionalism in CEE states. It has raised difficult issues regarding the relationships between national sovereignty, democracy, and human rights that CEE policy makers have grappled with; these issues and responses by CEE member states have had implications for the 'old' EU member states as well. These dynamics are explored through various case studies, providing a new perspective on the development of legal norms and institutions within European supranational bodies.

Download or read book Rights Before Courts written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2005-12-05 with total page 388 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 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.

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.

Download or read book Limiting Government written by András Sajó and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until the previous decade, constitutionalism in Eastern Europe was considered to be an outmoded concept of the nineteenth century. Changes in the region, however, have brought back the fundamental question of the need to restrict government power through social self-binding. This book discusses the mechanisms of such restriction, including different forms of the separation of powers and constitutional review. It relates the theoretical and practical importance of the issue to the present world-wide discontent with majoritarian democracy and the growing disrepute of parliaments. Increasing executive efficiency is, however, a threat to fundamental rights, and the battlecry of efficiency is often only a means to new despotism and inefficiency. A careful re-evaluation of the concept of constitutionalism assists in the search for a useful balance between majoritarianism and rights, and in the avoidance of all forms of public tyranny. Written in non-technical language and using the most important English, American, French, and German examples of constitutional history, the book also examines East European (in particular, Russian) and Latin American examples, in part to illustrate certain dead-ends in constitutional development. It is intended to be an introduction for all those concerned with liberty.

Download or read book A History of the Hungarian Constitution written by Ferenc Hörcher and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-13 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new Hungarian Basic Law, which was ratified on 1 January 2012, provoked domestic and international controversy. Of particular concern was the constitutional text's explicit claim that it was situated within a reinvigorated Hungarian legal tradition that had allegedly developed over centuries before its violent interruption during World War II, by German invaders, and later, by Soviet occupation. To explore the context and validity of this claim, and the legal traditions which have informed the stormy centuries of Hungary's constitutional development, this book brings together a group of leading historians, political scientists and legal scholars to produce a comprehensive history of Hungarian constitutional thought. Ranging in scope from an overview of Hungarian medieval jurisprudence to an assessment of the various criticisms levelled at the new Hungarian Basis Law of 2012, contributors assess the constitutions, their impacts and their legacies, as well as the social and cultural contexts within which they were drafted. The historical analysis is accompanied by a selection of original source materials, many translated here for the first time. This is the only book in English on the subject and is essential reading for all those interested in Hungary's history, political culture and constitution.

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 374 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 Spreading Democracy and the Rule of Law written by Wojciech Sadurski and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-07-30 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The accession of eight post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (and also of Malta and Cyprus) to the European Union in 2004 has been heralded as perhaps the most important development in the history of European integration so far. While the impact of the enlargement on the constitutional structures and practices of the EU has already generated a rich scholarly literature, the influence of the accession on constitutionalism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law among the new member states has been largely ignored. This book fills this gap, and addresses the question of the consequences of the "external force" of European enlargement upon the understanding and practice of democracy and the rule of law and among both the main legal-political actors and the general public in the new member-states. A number of leading legal scholars, sociologists and political scientists, both from Central and Eastern Europe and from outside, address these issues in a systematic and critical way. Taken together, these essays help answer a fundamental question: does the European Union have the potential of promoting and consolidate democracy and human rights?

Download or read book Freedom of Speech written by Uladzislau Belavusau and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the issue of free speech in transitional democracies focusing on the socio-legal developments in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. In showing how these Central and Eastern European countries have engaged with free speech models imported from the Council of Europe / EU and the USA, the book offers valuable insights into the ways States have responded to challenges associated with transformation from communism to Western democracy. The book first explores freedom of expression in European and American law looking particularly at hate speech, historical revisionism, and pornography. It subsequently enquires into the role and perspectives of those European (mandatory) and US-American (persuasive) models for the constitutional debate in Central and Eastern Europe. The study offers an original interpretation of the "European" model of freedom of expression, beyond the mechanisms of the Council of Europe. It encompasses the relevant aspects of EU law (judgments of the Court of Justice and the harmonised EU instruments) as mandatory standards for courts and legislators, including those in transitional countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The book argues for de-criminalisation of historical revisionism and pornography, and illuminates topics such as genocide denial, the rise of Prague and Budapest as Europe’s porno-capitals, anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsyism, religious obscurantism and homophobia, virulent Islamophobia, and the glorification of terrorism. The research methodology in this study combines a descriptive case law assessment (comparative constitutional, public international, and EU law) with a normative critique stemming from post-structuralist scrutiny, rhetoric, postmodern legal movements, legal history, history of ideas, and art criticism. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of, comparative constitutional law, law and society, human rights and European law as well as political philosophers.

Download or read book The Transformation of Property Regimes and Transitional Justice in Central Eastern Europe written by Liviu Damşa and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-03 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the property transformations in post-communist Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and focuses on the role of restitution and privatisation in such transformations. It argues that the theorisation of ‘restitution’ in post-communist CEE is incomplete in the transitional justice scholarship and in the literature on correction of historical wrongs. The book also argues that, for a more complete theorisation of (post-communist) restitution, the transformations of property in post-communist societies ought to be studied in a more holistic way. The main legal vehicles used for such transformations, privatisation and restitution, should not be studied separately and in abstract, but in their reciprocal relationship, and in connection to the dimension of justice which each could achieve. Finally, the book integrates ‘privatisation’ in a theory of post-communist transformation of property.

Download or read book The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe written by Sten Berglund and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 861 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ÔLots has changed in Eastern Europe in the past quarter-century and the new edition of this major study of the region sets out these changes in directions for the better and for the worse.Õ Ð Richard Rose, University of Strathclyde, UK ÔThis Handbook offers a historically informed, systematic account of the political development in Central and Eastern Europe. Two chapters lay out a framework for comparison. 26 specialists provide analyses for 19 countries. In an appendix, each of these country chapters documents election results, government composition, the electoral system, and the constitutional framework. The concluding chapter synthesizes the major results. The Handbook is the most comprehensive source for an up-to-date analysis of all Central and Eastern European countries within the sphere of influence of the European Union. It is a Òmust haveÓ for students and scholars interested in how to evaluate the state of democracy in this region of the globe.Õ Ð Hans-Dieter Klingemann, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE and Social Science Research Center Berlin, Germany This third edition of The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe provides an authoritative and thorough analysis of the political changes, which have occurred in Central and Eastern Europe since the demise of communism. It offers an historical, comparative perspective of the region and focuses on the social consequences of the democratisation process. The country-specific chapters are written by scholars with well-documented area expertise on their respective cases: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Each chapter includes detailed examinations of elections, the formation of governments, electoral systems and constitutional arrangements. These in-depth and up-to-date analyses are supplemented by conclusions on the party systems and emerging political structures in the region as a whole, as well as the consolidation of democracy in a post-communist setting. The revised and expanded version of The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe provides a state-of-the art companion, which will be indispensable for students and scholars in the social sciences including political science, comparative politics, European studies and political history, as well as for policy makers and practitioners.