The Birth of Judicial Politics in France: The Constitutional Council in Comparative Perspective

ISBN-13: 9780195070347 / Angielski / Twarda / 1992 / 320 str.

Alec Stone Sweet

Opis

The French Constitutional Council, a quasi-judicial body created at the dawn of the Fifth Republic, functioned in relative obscurity for almost two decades until its emergence in the 1980s as a pivotal actor in the French policymaking process. Alec Stone focuses on how this once docile institution, through its practice of constitutional review, has become a meaningfully autonomous actor in the French political system. After examining the formal prohibition against judicial review in France, Stone illustrates how politicians and the Council have collaborated over the course of the last decade, often unintentionally and in the service of contradictory agendas, to significantly enhance Council's power. While the Council came to function as a third house of Parliament, the legislative work of the government and Parliament was meaningfully "juridicized." Through a discussion of broad theoretical issues, Stone then expands the scope of his analysis to the politics of constitutional review in Germany, Spain, and Austria.

Recenzje

`Alec Stone has written a comprehensive description of the inception and subsequent evolution of the French Constitutional Council, but he has also done much more ... He demonstrates that he is well-versed in the literature of comparative politics and he capably applies it to judicial institutions ... This is a rich book and one that can be profitably read by students of judicial and comparative politics and by those whose inclinations lie in jurisprudence and law ... I find the overall quality and value of the book to be most impressive.' West European Politics