The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums

The Limits and Legitimacy of Referendums brings together diverse perspectives on referendums, constitutionalism, liberalism, and democracy in ways that challenge the conventional wisdom, prompt new answers to enduring questions, and urge reconsideration of how we evaluate the legitimacy of referendums.

Richard Albert is the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law, Professor of Government, and Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. A scholar of constitutional law and democratic reform, he has published over 20 books, including Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions (Oxford University Press 2019). He is Co-President of the International Society of Public Law, a former law clerk to the Chief Justice of Canada, and he holds law and political science degrees from Yale, Oxford, and Harvard.
Richard Stacey is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. A legal theorist trained in comparative and social science methods, his work explores how public law frames the relationship between people and their governments. He is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersand in South Africa and New York University in the United States, and served as law clerk to Justices Catherine O'Regan and Bess Nkabinde at the South African Constitutional Court.

Part I: Why Referendums?
1: Zachary Elkins and Alexander Hudson: The Strange Case of the Package Deal: Amendments and Replacements in Constitutional Reform
2: Richard Albert: Discretionary Referendums in Constitutional Amendment
3: Richard Stacey: The Unnecessary Referendum: Popular Sovereignty in the Constitutional Interregnum
Part II: Who Are the People?
4: Stephen Tierney: Referendums in Federal States: Territorial Pluralism and the Challenge of Direct Democracy
5: Antoni Abat i Ninet: Referendum and Self-Determination in Catalonia
6: Anna Fruhstorfer: Referendums and Autocratization: Explaining Referendum in the Post-Soviet Space
Part III: Are the People Sovereign?
7: Leah Trueblood: Brexit and Two Roles for Referendums in the United Kingdom
8: Janna Promislow: Deciding on the Future: First Nations Ratification Processes, Crown Policies, and the Making of Modern Treaties
9: Carlos Bernal: Plebiscites and Peace: Comparative Lessons from the 2016 Colombian Plebiscite for Peace
10: Aileen Kavanagh and David Kenny: Are the People the Masters? Constitutional Referendums in Ireland