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Nonconstitutional Amendments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 July 2015
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The constitutional text in a constitutional democracy does not necessarily constrain constitutional change. Quite the contrary, constitutional change in a constitutional democracy often occurs in ways that depart from the rigid procedures governing constitutional amendment enshrined in the text of the constitutional.
In this article, I illuminate this peculiar phenomenon in comparative perspective, drawing from the constitutional traditions of Canada, Germany, India, South Africa and the United States. In addition to illuminating distinctions in the amendment practices of liberal democratic constitutional states, I deploy those contrasts as a springboard to substantive insights about fundamental principles of statehood, namely sovereignty and legitimacy.
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- Copyright © Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 2009
References
For helpful comments on earlier drafts, I thank Bruce Ackerman, Richard Bronaugh, Katherine Cornett, Allan Hutchinson, Daryl Levinson, Jason Marisam, Vinay Sitapati, Mark Tushnet and the editorial team at the Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence. I am also grateful to La Fondation Baxter & Alma Ricard for so generously supporting this project.
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123. German Basic Law, Part II, art. 20(1).
124. Ibid. at Part VII, art. 79(3).
125. Ibid. at Part I, art. 1(1)-(2).
126. Ibid. at Part I, arts. 1(3), 20(3).
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