Constitutionalism and the Role of Parliaments

Author: Katja S. Ziegler; Denis Baranger; Anthony W. Bradley
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781841136431
Published In: May 2007
Format: Hardback , 284 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Modern constitutionalism has put a lot of hopes in parliaments but there is some consensus that these hopes have not been entirely fulfilled. At the same time, the role of parliaments in contemporary democracies continues to evolve as parliaments are faced with new challenges. How should they react to the new forms of executive and administrative action? Should they play a role in upholding judicial independence, although the latter is frequently seen as independence from parliament as well as the executive? How should they contribute to the protection of fundamental rights?

The book aims at providing some answers to these questions by first setting the historic scene, giving a comparative overview of the modern history of a selection of major European deliberative institutions (UK, France, Germany and the European Parliament). The book then looks at themes around the doctrine of separation of powers, especially aspects of the relationship between parliament and the executive power and parliaments' role and attitude regarding the judiciary with a special focus on the independence of the judiciary in a comparative perspective.

Dr Katja S. Ziegler is Lecturer in Law, DAAD Fellow and Deputy Director of the Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford.
Denis Baranger is Professor of Public Law at the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II).
Anthony W. Bradley is Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law, University of Edinburgh, and a Research Fellow at the Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford.

Anyone interested in constitutionalism and related matters will find the volume quite absorbing.
The Commonwealth Lawyer
Vol 16, No 3, December 2007

Both the book's comparative ambition and its substantive focus on the constitutional role of parliaments make it distinctive and are to be welcomed...Comparative constitutional scholarship is in vogue and, in offering a comparative
analysis of the roles of parliaments, this book offers a valuable corrective to any tendency in comparative constitutional studies to focusing only on the case law of supreme and constitutional courts.
Adam Tomkins
Public Law
2008