Democracy and Legal Change

In Democracy and Legal Change, Melissa Schwartzberg argues that modifying law is a fundamental and attractive democratic activity.

Melissa Schwartzberg (Author)

9780521146579, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 31 July 2009

242 pages
22.6 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.32 kg

"Overall, this book is a very informative and interesting book,...The combination of a detailed and comprehensive historical analysis, well-structured conceptual framework, normative democratic argument, and an accessible style of writing will make this book an enjoyable and useful read for a wide scholarly audience..."
Magdalena Zolkos, University of Alberta, The Law and Politics Book Review

Since ancient Athens, democrats have taken pride in their power and inclination to change their laws, yet they have also sought to counter this capacity by creating immutable laws. In Democracy and Legal Change, Melissa Schwartzberg argues that modifying law is a fundamental and attractive democratic activity. Against those who would defend the use of 'entrenchment clauses' to protect key constitutional provisions from revision, Schwartzberg seeks to demonstrate historically the strategic and even unjust purposes unamendable laws have typically served, and to highlight the regrettable consequences that entrenchment may have for democracies today. Drawing on historical evidence, classical political theory, and contemporary constitutional and democratic theory, Democracy and Legal Change reexamines the relationship between democracy and the rule of law from a new, and often surprising, set of vantage points.

1. Introduction: explaining legal change and entrenchment
2. Innovation and democracy: legal change in ancient Athens
3. Law reform in seventeenth-century England
4. Fallibility and foundations in the American constitution
5. Protecting democracy and dignity in post-war Germany
6. Conclusion: defending democracy against entrenchment.

Subject Areas: Law [L], Political science & theory [JPA], History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS]