Comparative Constitutional Law and Politics
Fall term, Block J
W 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Visiting Professor Ran Hirschl
2 classroom credits LAW-32645A Fall
Constitutional supremacy--a concept that has long been a major pillar of American political order--is now shared, in one form or another, by over one hundred countries across the globe. This course offers an examination of various jurisprudential and political aspects of this global trend. It combines examination of comparative constitutional law and jurisprudence with exploration of new frontiers of pertinent legal and social science research concerning the origins and consequences of the worldwide expansion of constitutionalism and judicial review. Among the topics covered are: epistemology and methodology of comparative constitutional law; mapping the world of new constitutionalism from leading democracies and supra-national entities to various semi-democratic and non-western settings; theories of constitutional transformation; the international migration of constitutional concepts; patterns of substantive convergence and enduring divergence in comparative constitutional jurisprudence; constitutional law and distributive justice; pertinent theories of judicial behavior; constitutional courts and public opinion; the extra-judicial impact of constitutionalization; the judicialization of politics worldwide; and innovative means for mitigating the tensions between constitutionalism and democracy.
Requirements include regular attendance and participation, a short reaction paper, and a final take-home examination.