Download or read book Constitutional Law in Cameroon written by Charles Manga Fombad and published by Kluwer Law International. This book was released on 2013-01-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this very useful analysis of constitutional law in Cameroon provides essential information on the countryand’s sources of constitutional law, its form of government, and its administrative structure. Lawyers who handle transnational matters will appreciate the clarifications of particular terminology and its application. Throughout the book, the treatment emphasizes the specific points at which constitutional law affects the interpretation of legal rules and procedure. Thorough coverage by a local expert fully describes the political system, the historical background, the role of treaties, legislation, jurisprudence, and administrative regulations. The discussion of the form and structure of government outlines its legal status, the jurisdiction and workings of the central state organs, the subdivisions of the state, its decentralized authorities, and concepts of citizenship. Special issues include the legal position of aliens, foreign relations, taxing and spending powers, emergency laws, the power of the military, and the constitutional relationship between church and state. Details are presented in such a way that readers who are unfamiliar with specific terms and concepts in varying contexts will fully grasp their meaning and significance. Its succinct yet scholarly nature, as well as the practical quality of the information it provides, make this book a valuable time-saving tool for both practising and academic jurists. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Cameroon will welcome this guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative constitutional law.

Download or read book The Protection of Economic Social and Cultural Rights in Africa written by Danwood Mzikenge Chirwa and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-20 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book critically examines models of domestic, regional and international judicial protection of economic, cultural and social rights in Africa.

Download or read book Natural Resource Sovereignty and the Right to Development in Africa written by Carol Chi Ngang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-08-25 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the nexus between natural resources ownership and the right to development in Africa. The right to sovereignty over natural resources and the right to development are recognised and protected in an extensive framework of international, regional and domestic instruments. They guarantee people's entitlement to fully and freely utilise their natural resources as a means of subsistence and for economic, social and cultural development. Yet, despite the abundance of natural resources in Africa a majority of the people on the continent remain largely impoverished. This book articulates the central argument that to achieve the right to development in Africa requires appropriate governance of the continent’s natural resources to which the people of Africa are guaranteed sovereign ownership. With case study illustrations from Zimbabwe, Ghana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, chapters explore the normative measures, specific guarantees and community entitlements to natural resources for the realisation of the right to development. The book will be an invaluable guide to scholars and postgraduate students of Natural Resources, Development and African studies as well as policymakers and practitioners in these areas.

Download or read book Constitutional Idolatry and Democracy written by Brian Christopher Jones and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-26 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constitutional Idolatry and Democracy investigates the increasingly important subject of constitutional idolatry and its effects on democracy. Focussed around whether the UK should draft a single written constitution, it suggests that constitutions have been drastically and persistently over-sold throughout the years, and that their wider importance and effects are not nearly as significant as constitutional advocates maintain. Chapters analyse whether written constitutions can educate the citizenry, invigorate voter turnout, or deliver ‘We the People’ sovereignty.

Download or read book Constitutional Adjudication in Africa written by Charles Manga Fombad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing the first comparative analysis of African attempts to promote respect for rule of law and constitutional justice, this book examines the diverse and distinctive approaches to constitutional adjudication taken. It captures positive and negative developments, and future prospects for the different models of constitutional review.

Download or read book The Transatlantic Constitution written by Mary Sarah Bilder and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2008-03-31 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Departing from traditional approaches to colonial legal history, Mary Sarah Bilder argues that American law and legal culture developed within the framework of an evolving, unwritten transatlantic constitution that lawyers, legislators, and litigants on both sides of the Atlantic understood. The central tenet of this constitution—that colonial laws and customs could not be repugnant to the laws of England but could diverge for local circumstances—shaped the legal development of the colonial world. Focusing on practices rather than doctrines, Bilder describes how the pragmatic and flexible conversation about this constitution shaped colonial law: the development of the legal profession; the place of English law in the colonies; the existence of equity courts and legislative equitable relief; property rights for women and inheritance laws; commercial law and currency reform; and laws governing religious establishment. Using as a case study the corporate colony of Rhode Island, which had the largest number of appeals of any mainland colony to the English Privy Council, she reconstructs a largely unknown world of pre-Constitutional legal culture.

Download or read book Separation of Powers in African Constitutionalism written by Charles Manga Fombad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effective division of powers is critical to ensuring the promotion of good governance, democracy, and the rule of law in Africa. This book examines key issues arising during reforms of African constitutions, and focuses on the emergence of independent constitutional institutions providing checks against future abuses of powers.

Download or read book Rationing the Constitution written by Andrew Coan and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-29 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking analysis of Supreme Court decision-making, Andrew Coan explains how judicial caseload shapes the course of American constitutional law and the role of the Court in American society. Compared with the vast machinery surrounding Congress and the president, the Supreme Court is a tiny institution that can resolve only a small fraction of the constitutional issues that arise in any given year. Rationing the Constitution shows that this simple yet frequently ignored fact is essential to understanding how the Supreme Court makes constitutional law. Due to the structural organization of the judiciary and certain widely shared professional norms, the capacity of the Supreme Court to review lower-court decisions is severely limited. From this fact, Andrew Coan develops a novel and arresting theory of Supreme Court decision-making. In deciding cases, the Court must not invite more litigation than it can handle. On many of the most important constitutional questions—touching on federalism, the separation of powers, and individual rights—this constraint creates a strong pressure to adopt hard-edged categorical rules, or defer to the political process, or both. The implications for U.S. constitutional law are profound. Lawyers, academics, and social activists pursuing social reform through the courts must consider whether their goals can be accomplished within the constraints of judicial capacity. Often the answer will be no. The limits of judicial capacity also substantially constrain the Court’s much touted—and frequently lamented—power to overrule democratic majorities. As Rationing the Constitution demonstrates, the Supreme Court is David, not Goliath.

Download or read book Issues in Women s Land Rights in Cameroon written by Lotsmart N. Fonjong and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2012 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the customary, social, economic political and rights issues surrounding access, ownership and control over land from a gender perspective. It combines theory and practice from researchers, lawyers and judges, each with track records of working on women and rights concerns. The nexus between the reluctance to recognize and materialize women's right to land, and the increasing feminization of poverty is undeniable. The problem assumes special acuity in an essentially agrarian context like Cameroon, where the problem is not so much the law as its manner of application. That this book delves into investigating the principal sources and reasons for this prevalent injustice is particularly welcome. As some of the analyses reveal, denying women their right to land acquisition or inheritance is sometimes contrary to established judicial precedents and even in total dissonance with the country's constitution. Traditional and cultural shibboleths associated with land acquisition and ownership that tend to stymie women's development and fulfilment, must be quickly shirked, for such retrograde excuses can no longer find comfort in the law, morality nor in "modern" traditional thinking. The trend, albeit timid, of appointing women to Land Consultative Boards and even as traditional authorities, can only be salutary. These are some positive practical steps that can translate the notion of equal rights into "equal power" over land for both sexes; otherwise "equality" in this context will remain an unattractive slogan.

Download or read book A Constitution of the People and How to Achieve It written by Aarif Abraham and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-04-30 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain does not have a written constitution. It has rather, over centuries, developed a set of miscellaneous conventions, rules, and norms that govern political behavior. By contrast, Bosnia’s constitution was written, quite literally, overnight in a military hanger in Dayton, USA, to conclude a devastating war. By most standards it does not work and is seen to have merely frozen a conflict and all development with it. What might these seemingly unrelated countries be able to teach each other? Britain, racked by recent crises from Brexit to national separatism, may be able to avert long-term political conflict by understanding the pitfalls of writing rigid constitutional rules without popular participation or the cultivation of good political culture. Bosnia, in turn, may be able to thaw its frozen conflict by subjecting parts of its written constitution to amendment, with civic involvement, on a fixed and regular basis; a ’revolving constitution’ to replicate some of that flexibility inherent in the British system. A book not just about Bosnia and Britain; a standard may be set for other plural, multi-ethnic polities to follow.

Download or read book The Second Creation written by Jonathan Gienapp and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning revision of our founding document’s evolving history that forces us to confront anew the question that animated the founders so long ago: What is our Constitution? Americans widely believe that the United States Constitution was created when it was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788. But in a shrewd rereading of the Founding era, Jonathan Gienapp upends this long-held assumption, recovering the unknown story of American constitutional creation in the decade after its adoption—a story with explosive implications for current debates over constitutional originalism and interpretation. When the Constitution first appeared, it was shrouded in uncertainty. Not only was its meaning unclear, but so too was its essential nature. Was the American Constitution a written text, or something else? Was it a legal text? Was it finished or unfinished? What rules would guide its interpretation? Who would adjudicate competing readings? As political leaders put the Constitution to work, none of these questions had answers. Through vigorous debates they confronted the document’s uncertainty, and—over time—how these leaders imagined the Constitution radically changed. They had begun trying to fix, or resolve, an imperfect document, but they ended up fixing, or cementing, a very particular notion of the Constitution as a distinctively textual and historical artifact circumscribed in space and time. This means that some of the Constitution’s most definitive characteristics, ones which are often treated as innate, were only added later and were thus contingent and optional.

Download or read book On Reading the Constitution written by Laurence H. TRIBE and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our Constitution speaks in general terms of liberty and property, of the privileges and immunities of citizens, and of the equal protection of the laws--open-ended phrases that seem to invite readers to reflect in them their own visions and agendas. Yet, recognizing that the Constitution cannot be merely what its interpreters wish it to be, this volume's authors draw on literary and mathematical analogies to explore how the fundamental charter of American government should be construed today.

Download or read book Against Constitutionalism written by Martin Loughlin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical analysis of the transformation of constitutionalism from an increasingly irrelevant theory of limited government into the most influential philosophy of governance in the world today. Constitutionalism is universally commended because it has never been precisely defined. Martin Loughlin argues that it is not some vague amalgam of liberal aspirations but a specific and deeply contentious governing philosophy. An Enlightenment idea that in the nineteenth century became America's unique contribution to the philosophy of government, constitutionalism was by the mid-twentieth century widely regarded as an anachronism. Advocating separated powers and limited government, it was singularly unsuited to the political challenges of the times. But constitutionalism has since undergone a remarkable transformation, giving the Constitution an unprecedented role in society. Once treated as a practical instrument to regulate government, the Constitution has been raised to the status of civil religion, a symbolic representation of collective unity. Against Constitutionalism explains why this has happened and its far-reaching consequences. Spearheaded by a "rights revolution" that subjects governmental action to comprehensive review through abstract principles, judges acquire greatly enhanced power as oracles of the regime's "invisible constitution." Constitutionalism is refashioned as a theory maintaining that governmental authority rests not on collective will but on adherence to abstract standards of "public reason." And across the world the variable practices of constitutional government have been reshaped by its precepts. Constitutionalism, Loughlin argues, now propagates the widespread belief that social progress is advanced not through politics, electoral majorities, and legislative action, but through innovative judicial interpretation. The rise of constitutionalism, commonly conflated with constitutional democracy, actually contributes to its degradation.

Download or read book State Building and Multilingual Education in Africa written by Ericka A. Albaugh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do governments in Africa make decisions about language? What does language have to do with state-building, and what impact might it have on democracy? This manuscript provides a longue durée explanation for policies toward language in Africa, taking the reader through colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It explains the growing trend toward the use of multiple languages in education as a result of new opportunities and incentives. The opportunities incorporate ideational relationships with former colonizers as well as the work of language NGOs on the ground. The incentives relate to the current requirements of democratic institutions, and the strategies leaders devise to win elections within these constraints. By contrasting the environment faced by African leaders with that faced by European state-builders, it explains the weakness of education and limited spread of standard languages on the continent. The work combines constructivist understanding about changing preferences with realist insights about the strategies leaders employ to maintain power.

Download or read book Corruption and Constitutionalism in Africa written by Charles Manga Fombad and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Stellenbosch Handbooks in African Constitutional Law series engages with contemporary issues of constitutionalism in Africa. The first experiments in democratic and constitutional governance in Africa that started after independence were soon overtaken by dictatorships, and arbitrary and repressive rule. The pulling down of the Berlin Wall followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed new forces of democratization and new hopes for the establishment and entrenchment of constitutional governance and constitutionalism in Africa. This series is designed to identify, analyse, and promote serious discussion of the critical issues that can shape, refine, and deepen the consolidation of constitutionalism in Africa. Although comparative constitutional law has become a major field of legal scholarship, most of the extensive research that has been carried out has focused on long-established democracies. The only African country that has attracted sustained research interest from a comparative law perspective is South Africa. The few books that present perspectives on African comparative constitutional law focus narrowly and exclusively on developments in either Anglophone, Francophone, or Arabophone Africa without cutting across these divides. Yet, since 1990, Africa has been at the centre of profound and far-reaching constitutional developments. Little comparative research has been carried out to understand the nature of these constitutional changes, to review their impact on the ethos of constitutionalism on the continent, and to explore prospects for the future. The series aims to stimulate interest in comparative constitutional research and the different constitutional traditions operating in Africa by presenting a comprehensive analysis of the latest thinking, research, and practice. In this way, the series intends to fill the huge gap in the existing literature on comparative African constitutional law as well as point out to directions for future research. Book jacket.

Download or read book Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi Law written by Bruce P. Frohnen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans are increasingly ruled by an unwritten constitution consisting of executive orders, signing statements, and other forms of quasi-law that lack the predictability and consistency essential for the legal system to function properly. As a result, the U.S. Constitution no longer means what it says to the people it is supposed to govern, and the government no longer acts according to the rule of law. These developments can be traced back to a change in “constitutional morality,” Bruce Frohnen and George Carey argue in this challenging book. The principle of separation of powers among co-equal branches of government formed the cornerstone of America’s original constitutional morality. But toward the end of the nineteenth century, Progressives began to attack this bedrock principle, believing that it impeded government from “doing the people’s business.” The regime of mixed powers, delegation, and expansive legal interpretation they instituted rejected the ideals of limited government that had given birth to the Constitution. Instead, Progressives promoted a governmental model rooted in French revolutionary claims. They replaced a Constitution designed to mediate among society’s different geographic and socioeconomic groups with a body of quasi-laws commanding the democratic reformation of society. Pursuit of this Progressive vision has become ingrained in American legal and political culture—at the cost, according to Frohnen and Carey, of the constitutional safeguards that preserve the rule of law.

Download or read book The Constitution in Conflict written by Robert A. Burt and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a remarkably innovative reconstruction of constitutional history, Robert Burt traces the controversy over judicial supremacy back to the founding fathers. Also drawing extensively on Lincoln's conception of political equality, Burt argues convincingly that judicial supremacy and majority rule are both inconsistent with the egalitarian democratic ideal. The first fully articulated presentation of the Constitution as a communally interpreted document in which the Supreme Court plays an important but not predominant role, The Constitution in Conflict has dramatic implications for both the theory and the practice of constitutional law.