The Guardian of the Constitution

The first English translation of Hans Kelsen's and Carl Schmitt's debate on the 'Guardian of the Constitution'.

As the terminal crisis of the Weimar Republic intensified, Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt debated whether the Weimar Constitution should be protected by a constitutional court or by presidential dictatorship. This volume provides the first translation of Kelsen's and Schmitt's famous and influential exchange on the 'Guardian of the Constitution'.This volume provides the first English translation of Hans Kelsen's and Carl Schmitt's influential Weimar-era debate on constitutional guardianship and the legitimacy of constitutional review. It includes Kelsen's seminal piece, 'The Nature and Development of Constitutional Adjudication', as well as key extracts from the 'Guardian of the Constitution' which present Schmitt's argument against constitutional review. Also included are Kelsen's review of Schmitt's 'Guardian of the Constitution', as well as some further material by Kelsen and Schmitt on presidential dictatorship under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. These texts show Kelsen and Schmitt responding to one another, in the context of a debate focused on a concrete constitutional crisis, thus allowing the reader to assess the plausibility of Kelsen's and Schmitt's legal and constitutional theories.