Constitutional Courts and Democratic Values: A European Perspective

Description

In this book, Víctor Ferreres Comella contrasts the European "centralized" constitutional court model, in which one court system is used to adjudicate constitutional questions, with a decentralized model, such as that of the United States, in which courts deal with both constitutional and nonconstitutional questions. Comella's systematic exploration of the reasons for and against the creation of constitutional courts is rich in detail and offers an ambitious theory to justify the European preference for them. Based on extensive research on eighteen European countries, Comella finds that centralized review fits well with the civil law tradition and structures of ordinary adjudication in those countries. Comella concludes that-while the decentralized model works for the United States-there is more than one way to preserve democratic values and that these values are best preserved in the parliamentary democracies of Europe through constitutional courts. Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 PART I. THE TRIUMPH OF AN IDEA......Page 18 1 The Rise of Constitutional Courts......Page 20 2 Historical Background: The Principle of Separation of Powers......Page 27 3 A Traditional Justification: Legal Certainty......Page 37 PART II. EXPLORING THE ADVANTAGES OF CONSTITUTIONAL COURTS......Page 44 4 The Justification of Constitutional Review: The Sketch of an Argument......Page 46 5 The Special Nature of Constitutional Discourse......Page 53 6 The Structure of the Constitutional Conversation......Page 72 7 Overcoming Judicial Timidity......Page 88 8 The Democratic Objection to Constitutional Review......Page 103 9 Democratic Checks on Courts......Page 115 PART III. CONSTITUTIONAL COURTS UNDER PRESSURE......Page 126 10 Decentralizing Tendencies in the System......Page 128 11 The Impact of the European Court of Justice......Page 139 12 The Impact of the European Court of Human Rights......Page 156 Afterword......Page 172 Notes......Page 176 A......Page 240 C......Page 241 E......Page 244 F......Page 245 G......Page 246 I......Page 247 J......Page 248 L......Page 249 N......Page 250 P......Page 251 S......Page 252 U......Page 254 Z......Page 255