基本説明
Provides a coherent, theoretically grounded examination of one of the most controversial issues in contemporary constitutional design - the accommodation of diverse cultures.
Full Description
How should constitutional design respond to the opportunities and challenges raised by ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural differences, and do so in ways that promote democracy, social justice, peace and stability? This is one of the most difficult questions facing societies in the world today.
There are two schools of thought on how to answer this question. Under the heading of accommodation, some have argued for the need to recognize, institutionalize and empower differences. There are a range of constitutional instruments available to achieve this goal, such as multinational federalism and administrative decentralization, legal pluralism (e.g. religious personal law), other forms of non-territorial minority rights (e.g. minority language and religious education rights), consociationalism, affirmative action, legislative quotas, etc. But others have countered that such practices may entrench, perpetuate and exacerbate the very divisions they are designed to manage. They propose a range of alternative strategies that fall under the rubric of integration that will blur, transcend and cross-cut differences. Such strategies include bills of rights enshrining universal human rights enforced by judicial review, policies of disestablishment (religious and ethnocultural), federalism and electoral systems designed specifically to include members of different groups within the same political unit and to disperse members of the same group across different units, are some examples.
In this volume, leading scholars of constitutional law, comparative politics and political theory address the debate at a conceptual level, as well as through numerous country case-studies, through an interdisciplinary lens, but with a legal and institutional focus.
Contents
Introduction: Integration, Accommodation and the Agenda of Comparative Constitutional Law ; PART I: SETTING THE STAGE ; 1. Integration or accommodation? The enduring debate in conflict regulation ; 2. The internationalization of minority rights ; 3. Does the world need more Canada? The politics of the Canadian model in constitutional politics and political theory ; 4. Beyond the dichotomy of universalism and difference: four responses to cultural diversity ; 5. Groups and constitutionalism in divided societies: a dynamic approach to the design of democratic institutions ; PART II: CASE STUDIES ; 6. Indonesia's quasi-federalist approach: accommodation amidst strong integrationist tendencies ; 7. Integrationist and accommodationist measures in Nigeria's constitutional engineering: successes and failures ; 8. The limits of constitutionalism in the Muslim world: identity and narration in Islamic law ; 9. A tale of three constitutions: ethnicity and politics in Fiji ; 10. Rival nationalisms in a plurinational state: Spain, Catalonia and the Basque Country ; 11. Northern Ireland ; 12. Iraq's Constitution of 2005: liberal consociation as political prescription ; 13. Recognition without empowerment: minorities in a democratic South Africa ; 14. Giving with one hand: Scottish devolution within a unitary state
