Constitution-Making and Transnational Legal Order

Constitutions are no longer exclusively national projects, but increasingly result from broader transnational processes that form a transnational legal order.

Gregory Shaffer (Edited by), Tom Ginsburg (Edited by), Terence C. Halliday (Edited by)

9781108460989, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 September 2020

334 pages, 16 b/w illus. 1 map 11 tables
15 x 23 x 2 cm, 0.49 kg

'Readers will emerge with a new understanding of how constitutions are made and remade. The authors disrupt the central claim in constitutional theory that constitutions are autochthonous creations reflecting purely national values and expressing local views. This book should become a focal point of reference in studies of constitution-making and constitutional change.' Richard Albert, William Stamps Farish Professor of Law, University of Texas, Austin

Since the rise of the nation-state in the nineteenth century, constitutions have been seen as an embodiment of national values and identity. However, individuals, ideas, and institutions from abroad have always influenced constitutions, and so the process is better described as transnational. As cross-border interaction is increasing in intensity, a dominant transnational legal order for constitutions has emerged, with its own norms, guidelines and shared ideas. Yet both the process and substance of constitution-making are being contested in divergent and insurgent constitutional orders. Bringing together leading scholars from the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia, this volume addresses the actors, networks, norms and processes involved in constitution-making, as well as the related challenges, from a transnational and comparative perspective. Drawing from the research on transnational legal orders, this work explores and examines constitution-making in every region of the world.

1. Constitution-making as transnational legal ordering Tom Ginsburg, Terence C. Halliday and Gregory Shaffer
2. Constitutional advice and transnational legal order Tom Ginsburg
3. A transnational actor on a dramatic stage – Sir Ivor Jennings and the manipulation of Westminster style democracy: the case of Pakistan Harshan Kumarasingham
4. Constitutions in world society: a new measure of human rights Colin Beck, John W. Meyer, Ralph I. Hosoki and Gili S. Drori
5. Constitutional dialects and transnational legal orders David Law
6. Transnational constitution-making: the contribution of the Venice Commission on law and democracy Paul Craig
7. Worst practices and the transnational legal order (or how to build a constitutional 'democratorship' in plain sight) Kim Lane Scheppele
8. Democratic erosion and constitution-making moments: the role of transnational legal norms David E. Landau
9. The possibilities and limits of a constitution-making transnational legal order: the case of Chile Javier Couso.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Public international law [LBB], Comparative politics [JPB]