Global Canons in an Age of Contestation: Debating Foundational Texts of Constitutional Democracy and Human Rights

Comparative constitutionalism emerged in its current form against the backdrop of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. As that backdrop recedes into the past, it is being replaced by a more multi-polar and confusing world, and the current state of the discipline of comparative constitutionalism reflects this fragmentation and uncertainty. This has opened up space for new, more varied, and increasingly critical voices seeking to improve the project of democratic constitutionalism. But it also raises questions: What of the past, if anything, is worth preserving? Which more recent parts should be defining of the field? In this context, this book asks which are - or should be - the canonical texts of comparative constitutionalism. The theoretical scope of the contributions is broad and ambitious, selecting primary material from beyond the existing textbooks to engage the concept of a canon. This framework provides significant insights about inclusion and exclusion, and proposes candidates for canonical and anti-canonical materials. The result is a wide-ranging discussion, among many voices, of how particular judgments and other primary texts have shaped or should shape our understanding of central elements of democratic constitutionalism from a comparative law perspective. This book is not a prescription of one universal understanding, but a broader conversation about the field and the future of constitutional democracy.

Table of Contents:
1: Sujit Choudhry, Michaela Hailbronner, and Mattias Kumm: Introduction Part I: Foundations 2: Rosalind Dixon: A Global Constitutional Canon v Quasi-Canon? Towards a More Informed and Inclusive Comparative Constitutionalism 3: Mark Tushnet: The Jurisprudence of Canons of Comparative Constitutional Law 4: Victor Ferreres Comella: Emmanuel Sieyes, 'What Is the Third Estate?' (1789) 5: Günter Frankenberg: A Haitian Turn 6: David Dyzenhaus: Exemplary but not Canonical: The South African Voters' Rights Cases 7: James Fowkes: A Constitutional Canon for Africa 8: Ana Micaela Alterio and Roberto Niembro: The Mexican Constitution of 1917: A Canon for Latin American Constitutionalism Part II: Structures 9: Kevin Tan: Separation of Powers 10: Sergio Verdugo: Global Canons, Term Limits, and the Constituent Power Theory 11: Wen-Chen Chang and Chien-Chih Lin: The Canon of

About the Author :
Sujit Choudhry is head of Haki Chambers Global, where he practices constitutional law both in Canada and globally. He previously taught at the University of Toronto, New York University, and UC Berkeley, and has been a visiting professor at Reichman University, the City University of Hong Kong, and the University of Melbourne. He has written widely on comparative constitutional law. His previous edited volumes include Security Sector Reform and Constitutional Transitions, Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions, The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution, and Constitutional Design for Divided Societies: Integration or Accommodation? Michaela Hailbronner holds the Chair for German and International Public Law and Comparative Law at the University of Münster. Michaela has published on questions of comparative constitutional law, European law, and human rights in a range of international journals including the American Journal of Comparative Law and the Toronto Law Journal, with her article on postwar German constitutionalism winning the inaugural Best Paper Award of the International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON). She is on the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON), is a co-editor of Verfassung und Recht in Übersee/World Comparative Law and serves as Co-President for the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) from 2024-2027. Mattias Kumm is Inge Rennert professor of law at New York University. His legal scholarship mainly focuses on basic issues and contemporary challenges in Global, European, and Comparative Public Law. Beyond his current affiliations, Kumm has held professorial appointments at Harvard, Yale, and the European University Institute (EUI) among others. He is also founding co-editor in chief of Global Constitutionalism and Jus Cogens. Kumm holds an JSD from Harvard Law School and has pursued studies in law, philosophy, and political sciences at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne, and Harvard University.

Review :
This is a unique and invaluable collection for anyone who wants a map to navigate the complexities of comparative constitutional law. Increasingly, judges and lawyers around the world have turned to other jurisdictions for added perspectives on how best to engage in the evolutionary enterprise of democratic constitutionalism. These essays explain brilliantly why and how that is happening. Does comparative constitutional law need a canon? This provocative collection of essays from a diverse set of insightful scholars cautiously argues that it does. It also undertakes the ambitious task of identifying a tentative canon (and an anti-canon) on a broad set of topics. It does so with an exemplary self-awareness of the risks that beset the enterprise, especially the risk of boosting the gravitational pull of constitutional practice of the United States. Even sceptical readers will find this agenda-setting volume edifying. Its chief contribution is likely to be to force scholars of comparative constitutional law to confront some very awkward, but fundamental, questions about the evolving shape of our still nascent field. In creating this volume on the role of canons in comparative constitutional law, the editors and authors have done something remarkable: they have uncovered an implicit and sometimes unspoken assumption of our discipline and subjected it to critical analysis from a variety of perspectives. Spanning the globe and digging deep into conceptual foundations, this volume on constitutional canons is set to become canonical.