Suchergebnisse

This essay attempts to summarize the Islamic aspect of political culture in Nigeria. It is not intended as an analysis of the recent elections in Nigeria whereby civilian governments were established to replace the military regime. Yet the emphasis on constitutional change, focuses on those aspects of Islamic culture in Nigeria which are likely to affect what ordinary citizens feel ought to be among the basic purposes of government. This essay is largely interpretative rather than empirical, and is based on a profound respect for many of the varieties of Islamic culture in Nigeria.

A longstanding question of American constitutionalism emerges out of the fact that constitutions demand fidelity. By virtue of what is the American Constitution binding? Zevit contends that many of the explanations of constitutional fidelity offered today fail to reconcile Americans' submission to a Constitution written & ratified by generations of long ago with their claim (or aspiration) to be self-governing as a People today. Zevit introduces one type of explanation (the aptness explanation) that does not contain this flaw &, drawing on an expansive definition of culture as a notion that encompasses the legal-political, offers the concepts of legal-political culture & baseline community as a framework for assessing the Constitution's aptness while maintaining the People's self-rule. She argues that constitutional aptness secures the foundations of constitutional legitimacy. 53 References. [Copyright 2004 Elsevier Ltd.]

In evaluating the success of the American constitutional system, constitutional theorists often focus their attention on the broad structures through which constitutional law is made--for example, the existence of multi-member courts a majority of whose members usually must agree on the text of a single opinion or the difference in training and life experiences that judges have in comparison with legislators. The same theorists tend to pay little attention to a related set of institutional arrangements that are more recent in their development--for example, the proliferation of amicus briefs filed by advocacy groups, the substantial increase in the use of law clerks, or the degree to which public awareness of the content of Supreme Court opinions is increasingly mediated through ideologically-committed talking heads. This paper makes two related points: First, it argues that constitutional theorists have drastically underestimated the degree to which the content and tenor of constitutional law turns on the second, more novel set of institutional arrangements. Second, it argues that the very distinction between the two categories is ephemeral; both the more traditional and the more novel institutional structures of the American constitutional courts are nominal and historically contingent. The paper concludes with an argument that the two sets of institutions can be--and must be--jointly theorized under the rubric of "constitutional culture."

"Nach einer kurzen Qualifizierung von 'Verfassungspolitik' als einer eigenständigen Kategorie der Policy-Theorie werden in diesem Beitrag unterschiedliche Ausprägungen eines in der Tradition des deutschen Verfassungsstaates stehenden Konstitutionalismus herausgearbeitet. Dies geschieht vor dem Hintergrund, daß ein Großteil der europäischen Verfassungsdebatte gerade diesen Orientierungslinien zu folgen scheint. In seiner Anwendung auf die bestimmenden Prozesse gegenwärtiger Politik (Säkularisierung, Pluralisierung, Demokratisierung und Europäisierung) erweist sich der vorherrschende wertgebundene und auf weitgehende Homogenität hin angelegte Verfassungsbegriff aber als hoch defizitär und ungeeignet. Die Entwicklung weist in Richtung eines Verfassungsverständnisses, das auf Differenz der Bürger und auf die Moderation dieser Differenz abstellt." (Autorenreferat)

The article deals with the problem of historical byway attempts to convert the autocracy in Russia into a constitutional monarchy. Such attempts have been made in the Russian Empire during the XVIII and XIX centuries, beginning with the reign of Anna Ivanovna and constitutional projects developed with Catherine II. State reform was prepared at the beginning of the XIX century in the reign of Alexander I, then under the direction of M. Speranskii preparing a number of similar projects aimed at the creation in Russia of the constitutional order. Reasons for the failure of the proposed reforms are analyzed in detail in this article.

The faculty of law of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education in corroboration with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stifttung embarked on a study on Politics, Socio-Economic Issues and Culture in Constitutional Adjudication. The aim of the project is twofold. The first aim is to analyse the influence of political, socio-economic and cultural considerations on the constitutional court's interpretation and application of the Bill of Rights. The second aim is to develop practical guidelines (based on the findings during the analysing process) for South African courts confronted with issues of a political, socio-economic and cultural nature. This article is concerned with initiating discussions of the decisions of the constitutional court with regard to cultural and religious rights. Before we can explore the role of political, socio-economic and cultural (and religious) rights in the decisions of the constitutional court it is important to discuss a few preliminary issues. In this article the meaning of culture and religion within the South African context receives some attention. Secondly, some preliminary comments regarding constitutional protection of culturally and religiously based rights will be made. We are well aware that this is a daunting task, not only in view of the seemingly abysmal gap between the applicable constitutional rights and values enshrined in the 1996 Constitution that, in some instances over centuries, brought about customs and practices within "traditional" communities which, seemingly, infringe on certain constitutional values and rights.

The faculty of law of the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education in corroboration with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stifttung embarked on a study on Politics, Socio-Economic Issues and Culture in Constitutional Adjudication. The aim of the project is twofold. The first aim is to analyse the influence of political, socio-economic and cultural considerations on the constitutional court's interpretation and application of the Bill of Rights. The second aim is to develop practical guidelines (based on the findings during the analysing process) for South African courts confronted with issues of a political, socio-economic and cultural nature. This article is concerned with initiating discussions of the decisions of the constitutional court with regard to cultural and religious rights. Before we can explore the role of political, socio-economic and cultural (and religious) rights in the decisions of the constitutional court it is important to discuss a few preliminary issues. In this article the meaning of culture and religion within the South African context receives some attention. Secondly, some preliminary comments regarding constitutional protection of culturally and religiously based rights will be made. We are well aware that this is a daunting task, not only in view of the seemingly abysmal gap between the applicable constitutional rights and values enshrined in the 1996 Constitution that, in some instances over centuries, brought about customs and practices within "traditional" communities which, seemingly, infringe on certain constitutional values and rights.

This volume investigates the nature of constitutional democratic government in the United States and elsewhere. The editors introduce a basic conceptual framework which the contributors clarify and develop in eleven essays organized into three separate sections. The first section deals with constitutional founding and the founders' use of cultural symbols and traditions to facilitate acceptance of a new regime. The second discusses alternative constitutional structures and their effects on political outcomes. The third focuses on processes of constitutional change and on why founders might choose to make formal amendments relatively difficult or easy to achieve. The book is distinctive because it provides comprehensive tools for analyzing and comparing different forms of constitutional democracy. These tools are discussed in ways that will be of interest to students and readers in political science, law, history and political philosophy