Where our protection lies : separation of powers and constitutional review / Dimitrios Kyritsis.

Author
Kyritsis, Dimitrios, 1978- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
First edition.
Published/​Created
Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2017.
Description
xi, 222 pages ; 24 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks K3173 .K972 2017 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Summary note
    In this book Dimitrios Kyritsis advances an original account of constitutional review of primary legislation for its compatibility with human rights. Key to it is the value of separation of powers. When the relationship between courts and the legislature realizes this value, it makes a stronger claim to moral legitimacy. Kyritsis steers a path between the two extremes of the sceptics and the enthusiasts. Against sceptics who claim that constitutional review is an affront to democracy he argues that it is a morally legitimate institutional option for democratic societies because it can provide an effective check on the legislature. Although the latter represents the people and should thus be given the initiative in designing government policy, it carries serious risks, which institutional design must seek to avert. Against enthusiasts he maintains that fundamental rights protection is not the exclusive province of courts but the responsibility of both the judiciary and the legislature. Although courts may sometimes be given the power to scrutinize legislation and even strike it down, if it violates human rights, they must also respect the legislature's important contribution to their joint project. Occasionally, they may even have a duty to defer to morally sub-optimal decisions, as far as rights protection is concerned. This is as it should be. Legitimacy demands less than the ideal. In turn, citizens ought to accept discounts on perfect justice for the sake of achieving a reasonably just and effective political order overall.--Provided by publisher.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-220) and index.
    Contents
    • The possibility of constitutional theory
    • A moral map of constitutional polyphony
    • Are courts the forum of constitutional principle?
    • Against the democratic objection
    • A little less conversation, a little more action
    • Constitutional review in representative democracy
    • Two modes of judicial deference
    • Moral and constitutional rights
    • Dynamic separation of powers.
    ISBN
    • 9780199672257 ((hardback))
    • 0199672253 ((hardback))
    LCCN
    2017945359
    OCLC
    989039605
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