Mar 28, 2024  
Graduate Record 2008-2009 
    
Graduate Record 2008-2009 [ARCHIVED RECORD]

LAW4 789 - Comparative Democratic Constitutionalism


This course will examine the constitutions and constitutional jurisprudence of the U.S., Germany, Canada and South Africa. These four nations each offer distinct models of how to run a constitutional democracy. Each nation has a distinct constitutional text and history, as well as idiosyncratic rules and norms of judicial review. Each strikes a different balance between majority rule and entrenched constitutional rights. And yet each is recognizable as a free and open society that is both rights-regarding and democratic. Students in this course will engage in comparative constitutional analysis, through study of relevant provisions of each nation’s constitution, as well as selected cases and secondary materials. Students will examine the historical relationships between these constitutions, and the borrowing that later constitutions have made from earlier documents. The ultimate focus of the course will be on the role that constitutions and constitutional law plays in constructing democratic societies.

Credits: 3