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The book sets out to examine some of the key features of what we describe as the paradox of constitutionalism: whether those who have the authority to make a constitution - the 'constituent power' - can do so without effectively surrendering that authority to the institutional sites of power 'constituted' by the constitutional form they enact. In particular, is the constituent power exhausted in the single constitutive act or does it retain a presence, acting as a critical check on the constitutional operating system and/or an alternative source of authority to be invoked in moments of crisis? These questions have been debated both in different national contexts and at the level of constitutional theory, and these debates are acknowledged and developed in the first two sections of the book. Part I includes chapters on how the question of constituent power has been treated in the constitutional histories of USA, France, UK and Germany, while Part II examines the question of constituent power from the perspective of both liberal and non-liberal theories of the state and legal order.The essays in Part III consider the operation of constitutionalism with respect to a series of contemporary challenges to the state, including those from popular movements below the level of the state and challenges from the supranational and international levels, and they analyse how the puzzles associated with the question of constituent power are played out in these increasingly important settings.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century Walter Bagehot wrote a classic account of the British constitution as it had developed during Queen Victoria's reign. He argued that the late Victorian constitution was not at all what people thought it was. Anthony King argues that the same is true at the beginning of this century. Most people are aware that major constitutional changes have taken place, but few recognize that their cumulative effect has been to change entirely the nature of Britain's constitutional structure. The old constitution has gone. The author insists that the new constitution is a mess, but one that we can make the best of. The British Constitution is neither a reference book nor a textbook. Like Bagehot's classic, it is written with wit and mordant humour-by someone who is a journalist and political commentator as well as a distinguished academic. The author maintains that, while the new British constitution is a mess, there is no going back now. 'As always', he says, 'nostalgia is a good companion but a bad guide.' Far from shying away from the thorniest issues facing the British polity today, the author grapples with them head on. He offers a trenchant analysis of the increasingly divergent relationship between England, Scotland and Wales in the light of devolution and a devastating critique of an all-elected House of Lords, whose benches, the author fears, risk being adorned by 'a miscellaneous assemblage of party hacks, political careerists, clapped-out retired or defeated MPs, has-beens, never-were's and never-could-possibly-be's'. The book is a Bagehot for the twenty-first century - the product of a lifetime's reflection on British politics and essential reading for anyone interested in how the British system has changed and how it is likely to change in future.
New Democracies in Crisis?: A Comparative Constitutional Study of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania
Gun control has long been a hot topic in the United States, and the controversy has only heightened since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Now, with a growing focus on homeland security, more and more Americans are asserting their Second Amendment right to bear arms.
In Guns, Freedom, and Terrorism, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre provides a fact-filled volume and tackles a number of subjects surrounding gun rights, including: arming airline pilots, animal rights extremism, media bias, gun show prohibition, self-defense, and others. His convincing arguments will cause even the most adamant gun control supporter to consider the values our forefathers fought to protect: liberty, democracy, and justice.
