Expounding the Constitution

This book addresses key issues in contemporary theory, including the nature of interpretation of bills of rights and the legitimacy and justification of judicial review.

This book addresses key issues in constitutional theory, including the nature of interpretation of bills of rights and the legitimacy and justification of judicial review. It brings together leading theorists and will be of interest to scholars and jurists from around the world, particularly in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.What does it mean to interpret the constitution? Does constitutional interpretation involve moral reasoning, or is legal reasoning something different? What does it mean to say that a limit on a right is justified? How does judicial review fit into a democratic constitutional order? Are attempts to limit its scope incoherent? How should a jurist with misgivings about the legitimacy of judicial review approach the task of judicial review? Is there a principled basis for judicial deference? Do constitutional rights depend on the protection of a written constitution, or is there a common law constitution that is enforceable by the courts? How are constitutional rights and unwritten constitutional principles to be reconciled? In this book, these and other questions are debated by some of the world's leading constitutional theorists and legal philosophers. Their essays are essential reading for anyone concerned with constitutional rights and legal theory.