Democratizing Constitutional Law: Perspectives on Legal Theory and the Legitimacy of Constitutionalism (Law and Philosophy Library)

This volume critically discusses the

relationship between democracy and constitutionalism. It does so with a view to

respond to objections raised by legal and political philosophers who are

sceptical of judicial review based on the assumption that judicial review is an

undemocratic institution. The book builds on earlier literature on the moral

justification of the authority of constitutional courts, and on the current

attempts to develop a system on weak judicial review. Although different in

their approach, the chapters all focus on devising institutions, procedures

and, in a more abstract way, normative conceptions to democratize

constitutional law. These democratizing strategies may vary from a radical

objection to the institution of judicial review, to a more modest proposal to

justify the authority of constitutional courts in their deliberative

performance or to create constitutional juries that may be more aware of a

community's constitutional morality than constitutional courts are. The book connects abstract theoretical

discussions about the moral justification of constitutionalism with concrete

problems, such as the relation between constitutional adjudication and

deliberative democracy, the legitimacy of judicial review in international

institutions, the need to create new institutions to democratize

constitutionalism, the connections between philosophical conceptions and

constitutional practices, the judicial review of constitutional amendments, and

the criticism on strong judicial review.

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