Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy

Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
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Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
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About Comparative Constitutional Law and Policy
Comparative constitutional law is an intellectually vibrant field that encompasses an increasingly broad array of approaches and methodologies. This series collects analytically innovative and empirically grounded work from scholars of comparative constitutionalism across academic disciplines. Books in the series include theoretically informed studies of single constitutional jurisdictions, comparative studies of constitutional law and institutions, and edited collections of original essays that respond to challenging theoretical and empirical questions in the field.
General Editors:
Tom Ginsburg
University of Chicago
Zachary Elkins
University of Texas, Austin
Ran Hirschl
University of Toronto
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Interim Constitutions
Legal Nature and Performance
Leena Grover
Coming soon
Expected online publication date:
September 2026
Print publication:
30 September 2026
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In the wake of wars and revolutions, fragile societies increasingly turn to interim constitutions to enact their visions for a brighter future. With more than 150 interim constitutions enacted globally since 1789, an understanding is needed of these legal instruments and how well they perform. As the first major comparative study, Interim Constitutions: Legal Nature and Performance fills this void.  This authoritative guide for practitioners and scholars addresses how interim constitutions compare to other constitutional reform options, when they are used and why, their functions, drafting processes and main design features, negotiation challenges, and the benefits they yield – including whether they lead to final (non-interim) constitutions, as well as greater peace and democracy. Dozens of hypotheses in the state of the art on achieving successful transitions are tested and disrupted, leading to novel and useful insights for improving future practice. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Incomplete Constitutions and Coordination in Deeply Divided Societies
The Afghan Experiment
Shamshad Pasarlay
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Expected online publication date:
August 2026
Print publication:
30 September 2026
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Why are some deeply divided societies able to craft stable constitutional regimes while others have failed and continue to be mired in endless communal conflict? This puzzle constitutes the central question this book seeks to address. This book is directed at scholars who wish to understand the riddles of constitutional performance in deeply divided societies, and those who are interested in understanding Afghanistan's troubled constitutional history. By providing the most comprehensive account of the drafting and performance of Afghanistan's 2004 constitution, the book is aimed at scholars who want to understand the nuances of the process that produced the Constitution and evaluate its performance with fresh eyes. The world is full of divided, post-conflict societies which continue to witness tragic violent conflicts. This book is thus a valuable resource for policy makers who are currently grappling with how to approach thorny problems of constitutional design and nation-building in these societies.
In the Shadow of the Constitution
The Micropolitics of Constitutional Contestation in Cambodia
Benjamin Lawrence
Published online:
25 November 2025
Print publication:
18 December 2025
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Across the world, the significance or role of Constitutions is too often understood in ways that ignore how they actually touch the lives or shape the political imaginations of ordinary people. Similarly, countries in the Global South, those that are not conventional liberal democracies, and those that have recently experienced conflict are generally underrepresented in the comparative constitutional law literature. Drawing on ethnographic insights and case-studies in Cambodia, this book provides a socio-legal account of constitutional practice under authoritarian rule and sheds light on how otherwise overlooked actors engage with constitutional language and assert constitutional agency. The Cambodian constitution is often dismissed as irrelevant, but its promises, principles and specific provisions actually matter deeply, both to the politically engaged and to ordinary people. This book highlights how many everyday contestations – over politics, religion and culture – take place In the Shadow of the Constitution.
The Efficacy of Judicial Review
The Rule of Law and the Promise of Independent Courts
Amanda Driscoll
Jay N. Krehbiel
Michael J. Nelson
Published online:
16 July 2025
Print publication:
04 September 2025
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Over the past century, countries around the globe have empowered constitutional courts to safeguard the rule of law. But when can courts effectively perform this vital task? Drawing upon a series of survey experiments fielded in the United States, Germany, Hungary, and Poland, this book demonstrates that judicial independence is critical for judicial efficacy. Independent courts can empower citizens to punish executives who flout the bounds of constitutional rule; weak courts are unable to generate public costs for transgressing the law. Although judicial efficacy is neither universal nor automatic, courts – so long as they are viewed by the public as independent – can provide an effective check on executives and promote the rule of law.
Constitutional Intolerance
The Fashioning of the Other in Europe's Constitutional Repertoires
Mariëtta D. C. van der Tol
Published online:
09 January 2025
Print publication:
23 January 2025
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Constitutional Intolerance offers a deeper reflection on intolerance in politics and society today, explaining why minorities face the contestation of their public visibility, and how the law could protect them. Van der Tol refers to historical practices of toleration, distilling from it the category of 'the other' to the political community, whose presence, representation, and visibility is not self-evident and is often subject to regulation. The book considers 'the other' in the context of modern constitutions, with reference to (ethno)religious, ethnic, and sexual groups. Theoretical chapters engage questions about the time and temporality of otherness, and their ambivalent relationship with (public) space. It offers examples from across the liberal-illiberal divide: France, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Poland. It highlights that vulnerability towards intolerance is inscribed in the structures of the law, and is not merely inherent to either liberalism or illiberalism, as is often inferred.
Constitutional Reforms in China
Past, Present, Future
Qianfan Zhang
Published online:
19 December 2024
Print publication:
02 January 2025
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This book offers the reformist perspective of one of the most persistent and outspoken constitutional reformers in China. Through the analysis of landmark constitutional events in China since the late nineteenth century, it reveals the fatal dilemma faced by constitutional reform and the deadly dangers of any violent revolution that arises out of the frustration with the repeated failures of reform. Although there is no easy way out of such a predicament, the book analyzes available resources in the existing system and suggests possible strategies that might bring success to future constitutional reforms.
The Entrenchment of Democracy
The Comparative Constitutional Design of Elections, Parties and Voting
Edited by
Tom Ginsburg
Aziz Z. Huq
Tarun Khaitan
Published online:
16 December 2024
Print publication:
05 December 2024
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This volume of essays brings together a group of leading political scientists, legal scholars, and political theorists to describe and analyze the body of constitutional law and practice within and upon democratic institutions, in particular examining how constitutional law shapes electoral democracy. Constitutional law and practice on this question are complex and varied. This volume therefore takes a thematic and regional approach: it selects a range of key theoretical questions related to democratic constitutional design and offers a series of chapters featuring a diverse range of voices, as well as a blend of theory, qualitative studies, and quantitative methods. Readers will gain a multifaceted understanding of a phenomenon of growing importance. The volume will also be useful to students of comparative constitutionalism, who will gain a rich array of empirical evidence to stimulate further work. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Deciphering the Genome of Constitutionalism
The Foundations and Future of Constitutional Identity
Edited by
Ran Hirschl
Yaniv Roznai
Published online:
14 March 2024
Print publication:
21 March 2024
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Constitutional identity has become one of the most important and hotly contested concepts in contemporary constitutional theory and practice. It has been repeatedly invoked in debates concerning EU integration, constitutional reform and revolution, and the spread of ethno-nationalist populism, democratic backsliding, and constitutional retrogression. Yet, the concept's precise foundations, meaning, scope, and dynamics of continuity and change remain somewhat unclear and under-explored. This contemporary and definitive volume aims to address this stark gap. Featuring some of the world's leading scholars of comparative constitutionalism, constitutional theory, and constitutional politics, this book provides a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind theoretical, comparative, normative, and empirical account of the concept of constitutional identity. It will be of great interest to scholars, students, jurists, and constitutional drafters alike.
Courts that Matter
Activists, Judges, and the Politics of Rights Enforcement
Sandra Botero
Published online:
02 November 2023
Print publication:
16 November 2023
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In Courts that Matter, Sandra Botero tackles a crucial question: Can courts advance socioeconomic rights? Using a rigorous comparative study of the impact of socioeconomic rights rulings in Colombia and Argentina, Botero argues that such decisions can be significantly impactful when courts deploy certain monitoring mechanisms and when legally empowered organizations in civil society are engaged in the outcome. The book includes case studies of landmark rulings on environmental, health, housing, and other socioeconomic rights and charts pathways for broader applicability through comparison with rulings by the Indian Supreme Court. The book demonstrates how Colombian and Argentine highest tribunals have, at times, successfully configured important new political spaces for the effective pursuit of public policy goals, in conjunction and dialogue with other social and political actors. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.
The Story of Constitutions
Discovering the We in Us
Wim Voermans
Published online:
19 October 2023
Print publication:
02 November 2023
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Today, 189 out of 193 officially recognised nation-states have a written constitution, and 75% of these have been ratified since 1975. How did this worldwide diffusion of constitutions come about? In this book, Wim Voermans traces the varied and surprising story of constitutions since the agricultural revolution of c.10,000 bce. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Voermans shows how human evolution, human nature and the history of thought have all played their part in shaping modern constitutions. Constitutions, in turn, have shaped our societies, creating imagined communities of trust and recognition that allow us to successfully co-operate with one another. Engagingly and wittily told, the story of constitutions is vital to understanding our world, our civilisations and, most significantly, ourselves.
Democracy under God
Constitutions, Islam and Human Rights in the Muslim World
Dawood Ahmed
Muhammad Zubair Abbasi
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23 February 2023
Print publication:
02 March 2023
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State recognition of Islam in Muslim countries invites fierce debate from scholars and politicians alike, some of whom assume an inherent conflict between Islam and liberal democracy. Analyzing case studies and empirical data from several Muslim-majority countries, Ahmed and Abbasi find, counterintuitively, that in many Muslim countries, constitutional recognition of Islam often occurs during moments of democratization. Indeed, the insertion of Islam in a constitution is frequently accompanied by an expansion, not a reduction, in constitutional human rights, with case law from higher courts in Egypt and Pakistan demonstrating that potential tensions between the constitutional pursuit of human rights, liberal democracy and Islam are capable of judicial resolution. The authors also argue that colonial history was pivotal in determining whether a country adopted the constitutional path of Islam or secularism partly explaining why Islam in constitutional politics survived and became more prevalent in Muslim countries that were colonized by the British, and not those colonized by the French or Soviets.
Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law
Edited by
Tom Ginsburg
Benjamin Schonthal
Published online:
18 November 2022
Print publication:
01 December 2022
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Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law offers the first comprehensive account of the entanglements of Buddhism and constitutional law in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of experts, the volume offers a complex portrait of “the Buddhist-constitutional complex,” demonstrating the intricate and powerful ways in which Buddhist and constitutional ideas merged, interacted and co-evolved. The authors also highlight the important ways in which Buddhist actors have (re)conceived Western liberal ideals such as constitutionalism, rule of law, and secularism. Available Open Access on Cambridge Core, this trans-disciplinary volume is written to be accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Constitution Makers on Constitution Making
New Cases
Edited by
Tom Ginsburg
Sumit Bisarya
Published online:
03 November 2022
Print publication:
17 November 2022
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Constitution-making is a major event in the life of a country, with constitutions often acting as a catalyst for social and political transformation. But what determines the visions, aspirations and compromises that go into a written constitution? In this unique volume, constitution makers from countries around the world come together to offer their insights. Using a collection of case studies from countries with recently written constitutions, Constitution Makers on Constitution Making provides a common framework to explain how constitutions are created. Scholars and practitioners very close to the process illuminate critical insights into how participants see constitutional options, how deadlocks are broken, and how changes are achieved. This vital volume also draws lessons concerning the role of courts in policing the process, on international involvement, and on public participation.
Constitutionalism and a Right to Effective Government?
Edited by
Vicki C. Jackson
Yasmin Dawood
Published online:
20 October 2022
Print publication:
27 October 2022
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Nations around the world are facing various crises of ineffective government. Basic governmental functions—protecting rights, preventing violence, and promoting material well-being—are compromised, leading to declines in general welfare, in the enjoyment of rights, and even in democracy itself. This innovative collection, featuring analyses by leaders in the fields of constitutional law and politics, highlights the essential role of effective government in sustaining democratic constitutionalism. The book explores “effective government” as a right, principle, duty, and interest, situating questions of governance in debates about negative and positive constitutionalism. In addition to providing new conceptual approaches to the connections between rights and governance, the volume also provides novel insights into government institutions, including courts, legislatures, executives, and administrative bodies, as well as the media and political parties. This is an essential volume for anyone interested in constitutionalism, comparative law, governance, democracy, the rule of law, and rights.
Amending America's Unwritten Constitution
Edited by
Richard Albert
Ryan C. Williams
Yaniv Roznai
Published online:
13 October 2022
Print publication:
20 October 2022
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It is well known that the US Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times since its creation in 1787, but that number does not reflect the true extent of constitutional change in America. Although the Constitution is globally recognized as a written text, it consists also of unwritten rules and principles that are just as important, such as precedents, customs, traditions, norms, presuppositions, and more. These, too, have been amended, but how does that process work? In this book, leading scholars of law, history, philosophy, and political science consider the many theoretical, conceptual, and practical dimensions of what it means to amend America's 'unwritten Constitution': how to change the rules, who may legitimately do it, why leaders may find it politically expedient to enact written instead of unwritten amendments, and whether anything is lost by changing the constitution without a codified constitutional amendment.
Judicial Vetoes
Decision-making on Mixed Selection Constitutional Courts
Lydia Tiede
Published online:
22 July 2022
Print publication:
04 August 2022
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How does the selection of judges influence the work they do in important constitutional courts? Does mixed judicial selection, which allows more players to choose judges, result in a court that is more independent and one that can check powerful executives and legislators? Existing literature on constitutional courts tends to focus on how judicial behaviour is motivated by judges' political preferences. Lydia Brashear Tiede argues for a new approach, showing that, under mixed selection, institutions choose different types of judges who represent different approaches to constitutional adjudication and thus have different propensities for striking down laws. Using empirical evidence from the constitutional courts of Chile and Colombia, this book develops a framework for understanding the factors, external and internal to courts, which lead individual judges, as well as the courts in which they work, to veto a law.
The 'Fall' of the Arab Spring
Democracy's Challenges and Efforts to Reconstitute the Middle East
Tofigh Maboudi
Published online:
31 March 2022
Print publication:
07 April 2022
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Constitutional bargains are seen as cornerstones of democratic transitions in much of the world. Yet very few studies have theorized about the link between constitution-making and democratization. Shifting the focus on democratization away from autocratic regime break down, this book considers the importance of inclusive constitution-building for democratization. In this pathbreaking volume, Tofigh Maboudi draws on a decade of research on the Arab Spring to explain when and how constitutional bargains facilitate (or hinder) democratization. Here, he argues that constitutional negotiations have a higher prospect of success in establishing democracy if they resolve societal, ideological, and political ills. Emphasizing the importance of constitution-making processes, Maboudi shows that constitutions can resolve these problems best through participatory and inclusive processes. Above all, The 'Fall' of the Arab Spring demonstrates that civil society is the all-important link that connects constitutional bargaining processes to democratization.
Can Courts be Bulwarks of Democracy?
Judges and the Politics of Prudence
Jeffrey K. Staton
Christopher Reenock
Jordan Holsinger
Published online:
24 March 2022
Print publication:
31 March 2022
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Liberal concepts of democracy envision courts as key institutions for the promotion and protection of democratic regimes. Yet social science scholarship suggests that courts are fundamentally constrained in ways that undermine their ability to do so. Recognizing these constraints, this book argues that courts can influence regime instability by affecting inter-elite conflict. They do so in three ways: by helping leaders credibly reveal their rationales for policy choices that may appear to violate legal rules; by encouraging leaders to less frequently make decisions that raise concerns about rule violations; and by encouraging the opposition to accept potential rule violations. Courts promote the prudent use of power in each of these approaches. This book evaluates the implications of this argument using a century of global data tracking judicial politics and democratic survival.
Constitutionalism in Context
Edited by
David S. Law
Published online:
17 February 2022
Print publication:
17 February 2022
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With its emphasis on emerging and cutting-edge debates in the study of comparative constitutional law and politics, its suitability for both research and teaching use, and its distinguished and diverse cast of contributors, this handbook is a must-have for scholars and instructors alike. This versatile volume combines the depth and rigor of a scholarly reference work with features for teaching in law and social science courses. Its interdisciplinary case-study approach provides political and historical as well as legal context: each modular chapter offers an overview of a topic and a jurisdiction, followed by a case study that simultaneously contextualizes both. Its forward-looking and highly diverse selection of topics and jurisdictions fills gaps in the literature on the Global South as well as the West. A timely section on challenges to liberal constitutional democracy addresses pressing concerns about democratic backsliding and illiberal and/or authoritarian regimes.
Filtering Populist Claims to Fight Populism
The Italian Case in a Comparative Perspective
Giuseppe Martinico
Published online:
18 November 2021
Print publication:
25 November 2021
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The new wave of populism that has emerged over the last five years in Europe and in the US urgently needs to be better understood in a comparative and historical context. Using Italy – including the experiment of a self-styled populist coalition government – as a case study, this book investigates how populists in power borrow, use and manipulate categories of constitutional theory and instruments of constitutional law. Giuseppe Martinico goes beyond treating constitutionalism and populism as purely antithetical to dive deeply into the impact of populism on the activity of some instruments of constitutional democracy, endeavoring to explore their role as possible fora of populist claims and targets of populist attacks. Most importantly, he points to ways in which constitutional democracies can channel populist claims without jeopardizing the legacy of post-World War II constitutionalism. This book is aimed at academics and practicing lawyers interested in populism and comparative constitutional law.
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