The Continued Renaissance Of Comparative Constitutional Law

by Ran Hirschl | 45 Tul. L. Rev. 771 (2011)

This issue reviews two books, Zachary Elkins’, Tom Ginsburg & James Melton, The Endurance of National Constitutions, and Vicki Jackson’s, Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era. Professor Vicki Jackson’s, Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era, is an exceptionally rich, at times even overly dense, book that engages in both empirical exploration and normative prescription. At the investigative level, Jackson provides useful vocabulary and ample illustrations for understanding the various domestic constitutional reactions to transnational law, and then meticulously explores how transnational law – treaties, customary international law, the decisions of foreign or international tribunals, and other transnational legal influences – affect constitutional interpretation and adjudication. At the prescriptive level, she advances a cosmopolitan agenda that endorses wider engagement with transnational law for both pragmatic and principled reasons. (full article)

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