How Constitutions Change

This set of essays explores how constitutions change and are changed in a number of countries, and how the 'constitution' of the EU changes and is changed. For a range of reasons, including internal and external pressures, the constitutional arrangements in many countries are changing. Constitutional change may be formal, involving amendments to the texts of Constitutions or the passage of legislation of a clearly constitutional kind, or informal and organic, as where court decisions affect the operation of the system of government, or where new administrative and other arrangements (eg agencification) affect or articulate or alter the operation of the constitution of the country, without the need to resort to formal change.

The countries in this study include, from the EU, a common law country, a Nordic one, a former communist state, several civil law systems, parliamentary systems and a hybrid one (France). Chapters on non EU countries include two on developing countries (India and South Africa), two on common law countries without entrenched written constitutions (Israel and New Zealand), a presidential system (the USA) and three federal ones (Switzerland, the USA and Canada). In the last two chapters the editors conduct a detailed comparative analysis of the jurisdiction-based chapters and explore the question whether any overarching theory or theories about constitutional change in liberal democracies emerge from the study.

Autorentext

Dawn Oliver is Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law at University College London.
Carlo Fusaro is Professor of Public Comparative Law at the University of Florence, Italy

Inhalt

Part I

1. Changing Constitutions
   Carlo Fusaro and Dawn Oliver
   Part II
2. Canada
   Tsvi Kahana
3. The Czech Republic
   Maxim Tomoszek
4. The European Union
   Renaud Dehousse
5. Finland
   Markku Suksi
6. France
   Sophie Boyron
7. Germany
   Jens Woelk
8. India
   Mahendra Pal Singh
9. Israel
   Suzie Navot
10. Italy
    Carlo Fusaro
11. New Zealand
    Paul Rishworth
12. Republic of South Africa
    Hugh Corder
13. Spain
    Ascensión Elvira
14. Switzerland
    Giovanni Biaggini
15. The United Kingdom
    Dawn Oliver
16. The United States of America
    Stephen M Griffin
    Part III
17. Changing Constitutions: Comparative Analysis
    Dawn Oliver and Carlo Fusaro
18. Towards a Theory of Constitutional Change
    Carlo Fusaro and Dawn Oliver
    Annex: Jurisdiction-based Chart