Content

This course introduces students to the study of constitutional law through the lens of comparative law. The course will provide a foundation for a structural approach to constitution making and constitution interpretation. By using a comparative approach students will examine the possibilities and limits of modern constitutions. The course will cover a range of different core issues within constitutional law. Examples of such issues include the study and evaluation of the role of judicial review, individual freedoms, separation of powers, centralization of decision making, pluralism and the protection of democratic principles.

Globalization and the development of new nations and expanding economics require lawyers to understand competing constitutional structures, principles, and limitations if they are to effectively represent their public or private clients. Lawyers must go beyond domestic law and should be aware of constitutional trends in order to assess and evaluate foreign or transnational developments when advising public institutions or business clients. The course will also encourage students to evaluate the foundation of individual legal systems, to study the competing cultures in the world and how they address similar problems and to assess the role of adjudicatory bodies in judicial review and constitutional interpretation. Finally, the course addresses a number of questions related to social welfare and personal freedoms and how these issues are considered in emerging and traditional constitutions.

Several sessions will consist of research into a topic chosen by the student related to the amendment of a fictitious constitution. Students then are expected to develop and defend a proposed amendment on the topic chosen by them in a fictitious parliamentary assembly. More information on this ‘mock constitutional amendment’ can be found on Toledo at the beginning of term.

Coverage: Topics to be covered in the course vary each year, responding to current constitutional developments. Issues that have been covered so far include:

•Definitions of a Constitution;

•Constitutions and Constitutionalism;

•Courts and Constitutional Rights;

•Separation of Powers in the modern era;

•Pluralism;

•Personal Freedoms;

•Centralization and Federalism:

•Privacy:

•Secession;

•Anti-democratic parties and associations;

•The scope of human rights.

More information on the topics to be covered can be found on Toledo at the beginning of each term.

Language of instruction: more information

The field of study of this course invokes pre-eminently international and English sources. Moreover, the “lingua franca” of this field of study is the English language.