Comparative Constitutional Law

This course critically examines the legal structure of constitutions in comparative perspective. It focuses on the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Germany, and students will be expected to acquire general knowledge of these constitutional systems and in-depth understanding of certain aspects that will be emphasised in the readings. The aim of the course is two-fold. The first is to understand how the above four constitutional systems structure, allocate, and limit legal and political powers, and how constitutional mechanisms for deliberation and decision-making operate in practice. The second is to gain general understanding of the nature of constitutions and constitutional law, in particular with respect to the following topics.  

1. Constitutional design and constitution-making
2. Federalism, subsidiarity and devolution
3. Representation and electoral systems
4. Executive power and form of government (considering parliamentary, presidential and hybrid systems)
5. Constitutions and the administrative state (considering various approaches to the independence of the administration from elected institutions, and to structuring judicial review through ordinary courts or special administrative courts)
6. Judicial review of rights and other constitutional provisions
7. Constitutional change: amendments, constitutional conventions, and revolutions

We will also consider the question of the methodology of studying comparative constitutional law. While the course considers the structure and justification of judicial review and examples of constitutional rights cases, there will be no extensive focus on case outcomes or legal doctrine in regard to constitutional rights. The course aims to increase understanding of the structures that produce case law on constitutional rights, but not to study that case law in depth. The selection of topics above is designed to complement (to a certain degree) the types of issues studied in the Constitutional Theory course.