Topic
Constitution
About: Constitution is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 37828 publications have been published within this topic receiving 435603 citations.
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TL;DR: The Dutch have been counted among the staunchest supporters of European integration ever since the parliamentary ratification of the European Community for Coal and Steel in late 1951 as mentioned in this paper, and the Treaty of Rome of 2004, the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe.
Abstract: The Dutch have been counted among the staunchest supporters of European integration ever since the parliamentary ratification of the European Community for Coal and Steel in late 1951. The major political parties—the Christian Democrats (CDA) and its forerunners, the Labor Party (PvdA), and the liberal parties VVD and D66—supported all important European treaties of the past decades. Only the smaller orthodox-Calvinist parties, some smaller left-wing parties, and, more recently, the List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) have opposed these treaties in parliament. This overwhelmingly large support in the Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament included the Treaty of Rome of 2004—the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe. One hundred twenty-eight out of 150 members of parliament favored the ratification of the European Constitution
74 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, Griffith and Tomkins explore why the normativity of a political constitution may be indistinct and ill-defined, and how compelling reasons for this indistinctness and ill definition are to be found in the very idea of a Political Constitution itself.
Abstract: The question - what is a political constitution? - might seem, at first blush, fairly innocuous. At one level, the idea of a political constitution seems fairly well settled, at least insofar as most political constitutionalists subscribe to a similar set of commitments, arguments and assumptions. At a second, more reflective level, however, there remains some doubt whether a political constitution purports to be a descriptive or normative account of a real world constitution, such as Britain’s. By exploring the idea of a political constitution as differently articulated by J.A.G. Griffith, Adam Tomkins and Richard Bellamy, this essay explores why the normativity of a political constitution may be indistinct and ill-defined, and how compelling reasons for this indistinctness and ill-definition are to be found in the very idea of a political constitution itself. A political constitution is here conceived as a ‘model’ which supplies an explanatory framework within which to make sense of our constitutional self-understandings. The discipline of thinking in terms of a model opens up a critical space wherein there need not be some stark, all-encompassing choice between constitutional models, which, in turn, allows for more subtle understandings of Britain’s constitution as neither exclusively ‘political’ nor ‘legal.’
73 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose that constitutions serve as a performative rhetorical space in which the nation-state constitutes itself among a community of nations, and that they also serve as an integral component of a nation's international identity.
Abstract: On a hot dusty day on 10 December 1996, in a ramshackle stadium facing 4000 South Africans in the town of Sharpeville, Nelson Mandela signed a new, radical, Constitution into being. On that day, the thousands who danced and sang in the blazing summer sun came to celebrate their freedom from the vicious apartheid regime and witness the closing of the final chapter in the country's remarkable negotiated peace process. What they also witnessed was a transformation in South African identity – both locally as well as globally. While constitutions have long been understood as a way of constituting a people I propose that they also serve as a performative rhetorical space in which the nation-state constitutes itself among a community of nations. Constitutions are never alone for the nation, though that is an important function of a constitution, but in a modern globalized world serve as an integral component of a nation's international identity as well.
73 citations
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01 Jan 2011TL;DR: In this paper, van der Walt et al. argued that regulatory deprivation of property is constitutionally unassailable, without compensation, even when it causes loss of value for the property holder, provided the regulatory action was properly authorized, administrative justice principles were adhered to and the effects of the regulatory actions are not arbitrary, excessive or disproportionately unfair.
Abstract: In constitutional property law, questions about the validity of regulatory control over the use and exploitation of property are decided with reference to the deprivation provision in section 25(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, as interpreted in FNB (First National Bank of SA Ltd t/a Wesbank v Commissioner, South African Revenue Service; First National Bank of SA Ltd t/a Wesbank v Minister of Finance 2002 (4) SA 768 (CC)). The general policing power or regulatory principle adopted in this decision means that state regulation of the use and exploitation of property (such as land use planning, regulatory control over the development of or building on land, and conservation of the environment) is regarded as a legitimate exercise of state regulatory power that does not require compensation. Accordingly, regulatory deprivation of property is constitutionally unassailable, without compensation, even when it causes loss of value for the property holder, provided the regulatory action was properly authorized, administrative justice principles were adhered to and the effects of the regulatory action are not arbitrary, excessive or disproportionately unfair (see the cases discussed in AJ van der Walt Constitutional Property Law 3 ed (2011) 213-18; more recent case law is discussed below).
73 citations
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TL;DR: Two competing processes of constitutional reform occurred in Zimbabwe between 1997 and 2000 as mentioned in this paper, where the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) led by churches, NGOs and unions, initiated a constitutional debate.
Abstract: Two competing processes of constitutional reform occurred in Zimbabwe between 1997 and 2000. In 1997, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), led by churches, NGOs and unions, was formed and initiated a constitutional debate. In 1999, the ZANU(PF) government of Robert Mugabe attempted to reclaim the debate by launching a Constitutional Commission (CC) with a mandate to consult Zimbabweans and draft a new constitution, to be voted on in a plebiscite in February 2000. The governmental process was unprecedented in its participatory and inclusive nature. Opposition politicians, NGO activists and church people were included alongside ZANU(PF) stalwarts. At the same time, the rhetoric used against those in the NCA who rejected the invitation to participate grew increasingly exclusionary and intolerant. The ruling party was, in this period, beset by revelations of scandals, financial crises and declining social services. The constitutional debate was, at least in part, an attempt to regain control of politic...
73 citations