Democratizing Constitutional Law

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • Thomas Bustamante, Bernardo Gonçalves Fernandes

   Pages 1-10

3. Challenging and Defending Judicial Review

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

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   2. Randomized Judicial Review

      • Andrei Marmor

      Pages 13-28

   3. On the Difficulty to Ground the Authority of Constitutional Courts: Can Strong Judicial Review Be Morally Justified?

      • Thomas Bustamante

      Pages 29-69

   4. Reason Without Vote: The Representative and Majoritarian Function of Constitutional Courts

      • Luís Roberto Barroso

      Pages 71-90

4. Constitutional Dialogues and Constitutional Deliberation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91

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   2. Decoupling Judicial Review from Judicial Supremacy

      • Stephen Gardbaum

      Pages 93-118

   3. Scope and Limits of Dialogic Constitutionalism

      • Roberto Gargarella

      Pages 119-146

   4. A Defence of a Broader Sense of Constitutional Dialogues Based on Jeremy Waldron’s Criticism on Judicial Review

      • Bernardo Gonçalves Fernandes

      Pages 147-164

5. Institutional Alternatives for Constitutional Changes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165

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   2. New Institutional Mechanisms for Making Constitutional Law

      • Mark Tushnet

      Pages 167-183

   3. Democratic Constitutional Change: Assessing Institutional Possibilities

      • Christopher F. Zurn

      Pages 185-212

   4. The Unconstitutionality of Constitutional Amendments in Colombia: The Tension Between Majoritarian Democracy and Constitutional Democracy

      • Gonzalo Andres Ramirez-Cleves

      Pages 213-229

6. Constitutional Promises and Democratic Participation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 231-231

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   2. Is There Such Thing as a Radical Constitution?

      • Vera Karam de Chueiri

      Pages 233-246

   3. Judicial Reference to Community Values – A Pointer Towards Constitutional Juries?

      • Eric Ghosh

      Pages 247-271

7. Legal Theory and Constitutional Interpretation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 273-273

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   2. Common Law Constitutionalism and the Written Constitution

      • Wil J. Waluchow, Katharina Stevens

      Pages 275-291

   3. On How Law Is Not Like Chess – Dworkin and the Theory of Conceptual Types

      • Ronaldo Porto Macedo Jr.

      Pages 293-324

This volume critically discusses the relationship between democracy and constitutionalism. It does so with a view to respond to objections raised by legal and political philosophers who are sceptical of judicial review based on the assumption that judicial review is an undemocratic institution. The book builds on earlier literature on the moral justification of the authority of constitutional courts, and on the current attempts to develop a system on “weak judicial review”. Although different in their approach, the chapters all focus on devising institutions, procedures and, in a more abstract way, normative conceptions to democratize constitutional law. These democratizing strategies may vary from a radical objection to the institution of judicial review, to a more modest proposal to justify the authority of constitutional courts in their “deliberative performance” or to create constitutional juries that may be more aware of a community’s constitutional morality than constitutional courts are.  The book connects abstract theoretical discussions about the moral justification of constitutionalism with concrete problems, such as the relation between constitutional adjudication and deliberative democracy, the legitimacy of judicial review in international institutions, the need to create new institutions to democratize constitutionalism, the connections between philosophical conceptions and constitutional practices, the judicial review of constitutional amendments, and the criticism on strong judicial review.

• Common Law Constitutionalism
• Constitutional juries
• Democratic Legitimacy
• European Convention on Human Rights
• Future of Constitutionalism
• Government of the Majority
• International Human Rights Conventions
• Judicial Review in Constitutional Democracies
• Judicial reference to community values
• Legitimacy Presuppositions
• Political Constitutionalism
• Radical Constitution
• Written Constitution

• Universidade Federal de Minas Gerai, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

  Thomas Bustamante

• Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerai, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

  Bernardo Gonçalves Fernandes

Policies and ethics