Recent Scholarship on Comparative Constitutional Law

Four recent papers, each one excellent, merit the attention of readers with an interest in comparative constitutional law.

The first, Studying Japanese Law Because It’s There, is an essay by Tom Ginsburg, my colleague here at the Comparative Constitutions Blog. Recently published in the American Journal of Comparative Law, this very important paper states in compelling fashion the case for the intrinsic scholarly benefits, as opposed to the purely practical applications, of the comparative enterprise.

Readers will also be interested in Government in Opposition, an exceptional piece written by David Fontana, another fellow blogger. In this piece, which appears in the Yale Law Journal, Professor Fontana illuminates a fascinating development in constitutional design: an emergent form of separated powers in which governing power is shared between electoral winners and losers.

A third article worthy of readers’ attention comes from the pen of Fiona De Londras and Suzanna Kingston, and appears in the American Journal of Comparative Law. In Rights, Security and Conflicting International Obligations, Professors De Londras and Kingston probe the decisional methodology of the European Court of Justice, the Council of Europe, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the courts of the European Union on the balance between security and rights.

Finally, let me note the paper of Lorenzo Zucca on Montesquieu, Methodological Pluralism and Comparative Constitutional Law. In this piece, Zucca applies the insights of Montesquieu to comparative constitutionalism, arguing, quite sensibly and persuasively, that the best comparisons exhibit a careful appreciation of history, political practice, sociology as well as moral psychology and evolutionary biology. Professor Zucca’s paper is a wonderful contribution to our continuing conversation on comparative constitutionalism.

I recommend all four papers enthusiastically.