Democratizing Constitutional Law

This volume critically discusses the§relationship between democracy and constitutionalism. It does so with a view to§respond to objections raised by legal and political philosophers who are§sceptical of judicial review based on the assumption that judicial review is an§undemocratic institution. The book builds on earlier literature on the moral§justification of the authority of constitutional courts, and on the current§attempts to develop a system on "weak judicial review". Although different in§their approach, the chapters all focus on devising institutions, procedures§and, in a more abstract way, normative conceptions to democratize§constitutional law. These democratizing strategies may vary from a radical§objection to the institution of judicial review, to a more modest proposal to§justify the authority of constitutional courts in their "deliberative§performance" or to create constitutional juries that may be more aware of a§community's constitutional morality than constitutional courts are. The book connects abstract theoretical§discussions about the moral justification of constitutionalism with concrete§problems, such as the relation between constitutional adjudication and§deliberative democracy, the legitimacy of judicial review in international§institutions, the need to create new institutions to democratize§constitutionalism, the connections between philosophical conceptions and§constitutional practices, the judicial review of constitutional amendments, and§the criticism on strong judicial review.§§