New Book on Constitutional Review by Dr Marie-Luce Paris and Prof John Bell

‘Rights-Based Constitutional Review: Constitutional Courts in a Changing Landscape’ edited by Dr. Marie-Luce Paris of the UCD Sutherland School of Law and Prof John Bell of University of Cambridge is an important new addition to the subject area of constitutional review. 

The book offers in-depth analyses on changes affecting constitutional design and constitutional adjudication, while also engaging with general theories of comparative constitutionalism.  It also seeks to provide a heightened understanding of the constitutional and political responses to the issue of adaptability and endurance of rights-based constitutional review. Since its launch, the book has garnered extensive praise and acknowledgment from leading academics across the world.  A number of quotes from a selection of distinguished commentators are included below.             

Dr Marie-Luce Paris	Prof John Bell

Dr Paris is the Academic Director of the French Law Programmes and the Head of International Cooperation in UCD Sutherland School of Law.

Mark Tushnet, Harvard University, US

 ‘Even well-established systems of constitutional review in Anglo-European legal systems have undergone significant change over the past few decades. These valuable essays provide an overview of those developments, and bring out especially clearly the increasing importance of “dialogic” forms of constitutional review, the penetration of transnational law into domestic constitutional systems, and important changes specific to individual national systems, all of which will make this collection helpful to scholars of comparative constitutional law.’

 Rosalind Dixon, University of New South Wales, Australia

 ‘This collection is a timely survey of the role of constitutional courts in a comparative perspective – it provides an excellent summary of developments in a range of jurisdictions, and locates them in a broader social and political context. Among other factors, it considers global trends in increasing international and regional human rights protection, increased recognition of second and third generation rights, and a move towards decentralization in democratic governance. It is bound to be of broad interest to both comparative constitutional lawyers and scholars.’

Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago, US

 ‘This collection provides a fresh picture of the situation of constitutional review in a broad set of jurisdictions. The chapters demonstrate powerful shifts towards a model of constitutional review to protect individual rights, but they also quite admirably elaborate on the tensions, divergences, pressures and triumphs in each country. A superb introduction to judicial review in an important set of countries.’

Christopher McCrudden FBA, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK and University of Michigan Law School, US

 ‘Bell and Paris have brought together a galaxy of talent to help comparative lawyers and political scientists understand the fast-moving world of rights-based review. Detailed chapters explaining recent developments in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, France, Australia, Finland, and the United States provide a valuable introduction to those who seek to catch-up with developments, and a rich analysis of those developments for those already immersed in them. This is a most welcome addition to comparative constitutional scholarship.’