Blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law

Top ten constitutional events in China


Here’s an interesting one. China’s Prosecutorial Daily has produced a list of the “top ten constitutional events” in 2009. Donald Clarke has kindly translated the list here. It’s a remarkable document in its conception of what counts as constitutional: many of the incidents involve abuse of power by lower level officials.

We tend to think of the key constitutional question as whether or not a formal document is justiciable, and of course the Chinese constitution is not. But the constitution also operates through the practice of government officials like prosecutors, who in this instance seem to conceive of their role in policing lower level officials as a kind of constitutional enforcement.

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