Constitution

About: Constitution is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 37828 publications have been published within this topic receiving 435603 citations.

Intergovernmentalism and Its Limits Assessing the European Union’s Answer to the Euro Crisis

Abstract: The Lisbon Treaty has institutionalized a dual constitution, supranational in the single market’s policies and intergovernmental in (among others) economic and financial policies. The extremely complex system of economic governance set up for answering the euro crisis has been defined and implemented on the basis of the intergovernmental constitution of the EU. The euro crisis has thus represented a test for the validity of the intergovernmental constitution of the Lisbon Treaty. Although the measures adopted in the period 2010-2012, consisting of legislative decisions and new intergovernmental treaties, are of an unprecedented magnitude, they were nevertheless unable to promote effective and legitimate solutions for dealing with the financial crisis. In the context of an existential challenge, the intergovernmental approach faced a structural difficulty in solving basic dilemmas of collective action.

Europe: The Faltering Project

Abstract: Preface. I. Portraits. 1. "...And to define America, her athletic Democracy." In Memory of Richard Rorty. 2. How to Answer the Ethical Question: Derrida and Religion. 3. Ronald Dworkin - A Maverick among Legal Scholars. II. Europe, Europe. 4. An Avantgardistic Intuition for Relevances: The Role of the Intellectual and European Question. 5. What is Meant by a "Post-secular Society"? A Discussion on Islam in Europe. 6. European Politics at an Impasse: A Plea for a Policy of Graduated Integration. 7. The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Problems of Legitimating a Constitution for World Society. III. On Reason in the Public Sphere. 8. Media, Markets and Consumers: The Quality Press as the Backbone of the Public Sphere. 9. Political Communication in Media Society - Does Democracy still have an epistemic Dimension? The Impact of Normative Theory on Empirical Research.

Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: The Russian Elections of 1999 and 2000

Abstract: Twice in the winter of 1999-2000, citizens of the Russian Federation flocked to their neighborhood voting stations and scratched their ballots in an atmosphere of uncertainty, rancor, and fear. This book is a tale of these two elections --one for the 450-seat Duma, the other for President. Despite financial crisis, a national security emergency in Chechnya, and cabinet instability, Russian voters unexpectedly supported the status quo. The elected lawmakers prepared to cooperate with the executive branch, a gift that had eluded President Boris Yeltsin since he imposed a post-Soviet constitution by referendum in 1993. When Yeltsin retired six months in advance of schedule, the presidential mantle went to Vladimir Putin --a career KGB officer who fused new and old ways of doing politics. Putin was easily elected President in his own right. This book demonstrates key trends in an extinct superpower, a troubled country in whose stability, modernization, and openness to the international community the West still has a huge stake.

Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession

Abstract: The fictive feminine virtuous woman disorderly woman positioning the picket fence legal narratives the triumph of ideology a postmodern paradox the maiden Bachelor of Law "Sweet Girl Graduates with their Golden Hair" women of "Electric Perceptive Intuition" women as non-persons after the first wave education for corporatisation the constitution of legal knowledge the docile law student beyond the tipping academic affairs bureaucratised authority the gendered academy the revolving door the neutral woman of law the sexual regime sentinels at the portals solicitors - corporatised and commodified psychic income in lieu in the shadow of benchmark man contingent authority camaraderie and clubs quasi-partners auxiliaries of the bar women on the woolsack professional politics - (i) law societies, (ii) women lawyers, (iii) feminist activism body politics the discourse of femininity dresscodes the mother as other the pervasiveness of discrimination ineffability of sexual harassment manned or damned. Conclusion: fragile frontiers from feminity to "feminisation" affective practice rewriting the social script. Appendix: list of abbreviations.

Compensatory Constitutionalism : the Function and Potential of Fundamental International Norms and Structures

Abstract: The article conceives international (or global) constitutionalism as a legal argument which recommends and strengthens efforts (legal and political) to compensate for ongoing de-constitutionalization on the domestic level. Although the notions ‘international constitution’ and ‘international constitutionalism’ have in recent years served as buzzwords in various discourses, the many meanings of those concepts have not yet been fully explored and disentangled. This paper suggests a specific understanding of those concepts. It highlights various aspects and elements of micro- and macro-constitutionalization in international law, and identifies anti-constitutionalist trends. On this basis, the paper finds that, although no international constitution in a formal sense exists, fundamental norms in the international legal order do fulfil constitutional functions. Because those norms can reasonably be qualified as having a constitutional quality, they may not be summarily discarded in the event of a conflict with domestic constitutional law. Because the relevant norms form a transnational constitutional network, and cannot be aligned in an abstract hierarchy, conflict resolution requires a balancing of interests in concrete cases. Finally, because constitutionalism historically and prescriptively means asking for a legitimate constitution, a constitutionalist reading of the international legal order provokes the question of its legitimacy. This question is pressing, because state sovereignty and consent are – on good grounds – no longer accepted as the sole source of legitimacy of international law. International constitutionalism – as understood in this paper – does not ask for state-like forms of legitimacy of a world government, but stimulates the search for new mechanisms to strengthen the legitimacy of global governance.