Human Rights in China


Book Description

How can we make sense of human rights in China's authoritarian Party-State system? Eva Pils offers a nuanced account of this contentious area, examining human rights as a set of social practices. Drawing on a wide range of resources including years of interaction with Chinese human rights defenders, Pils discusses what gives rise to systematic human rights violations, what institutional avenues of protection are available, and how social practices of human rights defence have evolved. Three central areas are addressed: liberty and integrity of the person; freedom of thought and expression; and inequality and socio-economic rights. Pils argues that the Party-State system is inherently opposed to human rights principles in all these areas, and that – contributing to a global trend – it is becoming more repressive. Yet, despite authoritarianism's lengthening shadows, China’s human rights movement has so far proved resourceful and resilient. The trajectories discussed here will continue to shape the struggle for human rights in China and beyond its borders.




The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law


Book Description

Comparing constitutions allows us to consider the similarities and differences in forms of government as well as the normative philosophies behind constitutional choices. The objective behind this Companion is to present the reader with a succinct yet wide-ranging companion to a modern comparative constitutional law course.




Chinese Small Property


Book Description

Qiao demonstrates how an impersonal and unbounded market can operate without legal protection or enforcement of property and contract rights.




The People Themselves


Book Description

This book makes the radical claim that rather than interpreting the Constitution from on high, the Court should be reflecting popular will--or the wishes of the people themselves.




A Confucian Constitutional Order


Book Description

English translation of materials from a workshop on Confucian constitutionalism in May 2010 at the City University of Hong Kong.




Courts, Politics and Constitutional Law


Book Description

This book examines how the judicialization of politics, and the politicization of courts, affect representative democracy, rule of law, and separation of powers. This volume critically assesses the phenomena of judicialization of politics and politicization of the judiciary. It explores the rising impact of courts on key constitutional principles, such as democracy and separation of powers, which is paralleled by increasing criticism of this influence from both liberal and illiberal perspectives. The book also addresses the challenges to rule of law as a principle, preconditioned on independent and powerful courts, which are triggered by both democratic backsliding and the mushrooming of populist constitutionalism and illiberal constitutional regimes. Presenting a wide range of case studies, the book will be a valuable resource for students and academics in constitutional law and political science seeking to understand the increasingly complex relationships between the judiciary, executive and legislature.




Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes


Book Description

This volume explores the form and function of constitutions in countries without the fully articulated institutions of limited government.




Crossing Borders: Constitutional Development and Internationalisation


Book Description

This book is dedicated to Joachim Jens Hesse, a scholar whose multi-faceted work may be characterised as an attempt at "crossing borders" in several respects. These primarily include fostering interdisciplinary cooperation between law, economics and social sciences, analysing public sector developments in an international and intercultural perspective as well as bridging the "gap" between academia and practical politics. Therefore, the volume deals with a subject that covers these features in an exemplary manner: the interrelationship between nation-state constitutions and their international environments. In this context, ongoing processes of transnationalisation have not only contributed to blurring the formerly clear-cut boundaries between these two domains, but also provoked a growing interest in and demand for comparative, interdisciplinary and applied research on constitutional developments. The authors of this Festschrift include eminent lawyers, economists and political scientists from Europe, the United States and East Asia who worked together with Joachim Jens Hesse in various contexts.







The Constitutional Identity of Contemporary China


Book Description

In The Constitutional Identity of Contemporary China: The Unitary System and Its Internal Logic, Han Zhai offers a profound understanding of China’s constitutional history with her account of constitutional identity of multi-layered states in other parts of the world. This book successfully bridges China’s constitutional complex and the emerging common theory of constitutional law with methodological innovations. In constitutional comparison, this work’s treatment of the Kingdoms of Spain and the Netherlands provides effective structural and historical analysis. This book does not only awaken China’s constitutional identity in contemporary scholarship but also presents rich possibilities in the constitutional study and the way we understand a country’s fundamental arrangements in its national context