Comparative Constitutionalism

This book provides a complement to Dicey's The Law of the Constitution. These largely unpublished comparative constitutional lectures were written for different versions of a comparative constitutional book that Dicey began but did not finish prior to his death in 1922. The lectures were a pioneering venture into comparative constitutionalism and reveal an approach to legal education broader than Dicey is widely understood to have taken. Topics discussed include English, French, American, and Prussian constitutionalism; the separation of powers; representative government; and federalism. The volume begins with an editorial introduction examining the implications of these comparative lectures and Dicey's early foray into comparative constitutionalism for his general constitutional thought, and the kinds of response it has elicited.

Table of Contents:
Editor's Introduction Part I: The Comparative Study of the Constitution Introduction 1: General Characteristics of Existing English Constitutionalism (May 1897) 2: Constitutionalism of the Commonwealth (June 1897) 3: English Constitutionalism under George III (undated) 4: American Constitutionalism (May 1897) 5: French Constitutionalism (May 1897) (with Appendix, Droit Administratif and Constitution of Year VIII, Art. 75) 6: Prussian Constitutionalism (May 1897) 7: Party Government (July 1898) 8: Parliamentarism (August 1898) 9: General Conclusions (May 1897) Part II: The Comparative Study of Constitutions Introduction 1: Historical and Non-Historical Constitutions 2: Ancient Constitutionalism and Modern Constitutionalism 3: Representative Government 4: The Separation of Powers 5: Divisions of Constitutions 6: The Judiciary in Relation to the Executive and Legislative Powers 7: Local Government and Centralization 8: Federal Government 9: Federal Government (continued): The Australian Commonwealth Appendices I: Memorandum on English Party System of Government II: Lecture 4: Comparison of English Executive with other Executives or Parliamentary and Non-Parliamentary Executives III: Note 2: Self Government and Note 3: Self Government and Local Self Government IV: Modes of Changing or Amending a Constitution V: Authorities and Questions for The Comparative Study of Constitutions VI: Note 17: Conclusions as to Droit Administratif VII: Why Universal Suffrage Suits France VIII: Scheme of Lectures, 1906 IX: Scheme of Lectures, 1908

About the Author :
Albert Venn Dicey (1835-1922) was Vinerian Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford and the pre-eminent constitutional lawyer of the nineteenth century. His Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution ran to eight editions in his lifetime and remains one of the canonical texts in the history of English constitutional law. John Allison is Reader in Public Law and Comparative Historical Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge. He previously taught at the Universities of Chicago, London, and Cape Town and is the author of two books, A Continental Distinction in the Common Law: A Historical and Comparative Perspective on English Public Law (OUP 1996) and The English Historical Constitution: Continuity, Change and European Effects (CUP 2007).

Review :
The Introduction to [this] volume... allows us to know a lesser known side of Dicey, who is here made known as a pioneering lecturer in comparative constitutional law studies... The editor has the great merit... of bringing out a significant portion of the work of Dicey that remained in the shadows, not without having conferred a systematic layout to materials that... inevitably remain fragmentary and incomplete... The work of the great English jurist, especially developed in unpublished materials compiled in [this] volume, is presented to the reader as a pioneering experiment, the cutting edge, even if left largely unfinished. An excellent snapshot view of western constitutional law as it stood at the end of the nineteenth century... The great scienti- c value of Comparative Constitutionalism is beyond doubt. The book would deserve to stand, along with Maitland's Constitutional History of England and some of James Bryce's own works, among the classics of later Victorian constitutional science.