The Migration of Constitutional Ideas

The migration of constitutional ideas across jurisdictions is one of the central features of contemporary constitutional practice. The increasing use of comparative jurisprudence in interpreting constitutions is one example of this. In this 2007 book, leading figures in the study of comparative constitutionalism and comparative constitutional politics from North America, Europe and Australia discuss the dynamic processes whereby constitutional systems influence each other. They explore basic methodological questions which have thus far received little attention, and examine the complex relationship between national and supranational constitutionalism - an issue of considerable contemporary interest in Europe. The migration of constitutional ideas is discussed from a variety of methodological perspectives - comparative law, comparative politics, and cultural studies of law - and contributors draw on case-studies from a wide variety of jurisdictions: Australia, Hungary, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.

1. Migration as a new metaphor in comparative constitutional law Sujit Choudhry; Part I. The Methodology of Comparativism: 2. On the blurred methodological matrix of comparative constitutional law Ran Hirschl; 3. Some reflections on method in comparative constitutional law Mark Tushnet; 4. The postwar paradigm and American exceptionalism Lorraine Weinrib; Part II. Convergence Toward a Liberal Democratic Model?: 5. Questioning the migration of constitutional ideas: rights, constitutionalism and the limits of convergence Jeff Goldsworthy; 6. Spreading liberal constitutionalism: an inquiry into the fate of free speech rights in new democracies Andras Sajo and Michel Rosenfeld; 7. Underlying principles and the migration of reasoning templates: a trans-systemic reading of the Québec Secession Reference Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens; 8. Migrating marriages and comparative constitutionalism Brenda Cossman; Part III. Comparative Constitutional Law, International Law and Transnational Governance: 9. Inimical to constitutional values: complex migrations of constitutional rights Mayo Moran; 10. Democratic constitutionalism encounters international law: terms of engagement Mattias Kumm; 11. Constitution or model treaty? Struggling over the interpretive authority of NAFTA David Schneiderman; 12. The migration of constitutional ideas and the migration of the constitutional idea: the case of the EU Neil Walker; Part IV. Comparative Constitutional Law in Action - Constitutionalism Post 9/11: 13. The migration of anti-constitutional ideas: the post-9/11 globalization of public law and the international state of emergency Kim Scheppele; 14. The post-9/11 migration of Britain's Terrorism Act 2000 Kent Roach; 15. Control systems and the migration of anomalies Oren Gross.

The migration of constitutional ideas across jurisdictions is one of the central features of contemporary constitutional practice. In this 2007 book, leading figures in the study of comparative constitutionalism and comparative constitutional politics from North America, Europe, and Australia discuss the dynamic processes whereby constitutional systems influence each other.