Routledge Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Change

Comparative constitutional change has recently emerged as a distinct field in the study of constitutional law. It is the study of the way constitutions change through formal and informal mechanisms, including amendment, replacement, total and partial revision, adaptation, interpretation, disuse and revolution. The shift of focus from constitution-making to constitutional change makes sense, since amendment power is the means used to refurbish constitutions in established democracies, enhance their adaptation capacity and boost their efficacy. Adversely, constitutional change is also the basic apparatus used to orchestrate constitutional backslide as the erosion of liberal democracies and democratic regression is increasingly affected through legal channels of constitutional change. Routledge Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Change provides a comprehensive reference tool for all those working in the field and a thorough landscape of all theoretical and practical aspects of the topic. Coherence from this aspect does not suggest a common view, as the chapters address different topics, but reinforces the establishment of comparative constitutional change as a distinct field. The book brings together the most respected scholars working in the field, and presents a genuine contribution to comparative constitutional studies, comparative public law, political science and constitutional history.

Xenophon Contiades is Professor of Public Law, Panteion University and President of the Centre for European Constitutional Law, Athens, Greece. Alkmene Fotiadou is a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Constitutional Law, Athens, Greece.

1 Introduction. Comparative constitutional change: a new academic field Xenophon Contiades and Alkmene Fotiadou PART I The study of comparative constitutional change: theoretical and methodological aspects 2 Comparative methodology and constitutional change Jaakko Husa 3 Order from chaos? Typologies and models of constitutional change Oran Doyle 4 Constitutional endurance Tom Ginsburg 5 Constitutional amendment versus constitutional replacement: an empirical comparison David S. Law and Ryan Whalen 6 Varieties of liberal constitutionalism Mark Tushnet PART II Formal constitutional change 7 Formal amendment rules: functions and design Richard Albert 8 Constitutional design through amendment Manfred Stelzer 9 The uses and abuses of constitutional unamendability Yaniv Roznai 10 Federalism and constitutional change Nathalie Behnke and Arthur Benz 11 Participatory constitutional change: constitutional referendums Eoin Carolan PART III Informal constitutional change 12 Political practice and constitutional change David Feldman 13 Judge-made constitutional change Joel I. Colón-Ríos 14 Global values, international organizations and constitutional change Helle Krunke 15 Crises, emergencies and constitutional change Giacomo Delledonne 16 The material study of constitutional change Marco Goldoni and Tarik Olcay PART IV Contemporary challenges in the theory and practice of comparative constitutional change 17 Constituent power and European constitutionalism Chris Thornhill 18 Populism and constitutional change Paul Blokker 19 The democratic backsliding in the European Union and the challenge of constitutional design Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz 20 Constitution and self-determination Zoran Oklopcic 21 Gender in comparative constitutional change Silvia Suteu PART V Case studies: distinct profiles of constitutional change 22 The future of UK constitutional law Robert Blackburn 23 Constitutional change in Australia: the paradox of the frozen continent Elisa Arcioni and Adrienne Stone 24 Preservationist constitutional change in Latin America: the cases of Chile and Brazil Juliano Zaiden Benvindo 25 Informal constitutional change in unlikely places: the case of South Africa James Fowkes 26 Constitutional changes in Japan Yasuo Hasebe