This panel features several authors from a new 26-chapter edited collection The Cambridge Handbook of Deliberative Constitutionalism (Ron Levy, Hoi Kong Graeme Orr and Jeff King, eds). Deliberative democratic theory emphasises the importance of informed and reflective discussion and persuasion in political decision-making. The theory has important implications for constitutionalism – and vice-versa – as...
Constitutional Deliberation in the Legislative Process
This paper considers how constitutional norms structure legislative deliberation. Its authors argue that the fact that legislators are ‘“responsible constitutional actors“ places them under an obligation … to deliberate about … constitutional rules when deciding whether to pass legislation‘. However, a complication is that some such rules are not judicially enforceable and may also be...
Deliberative Federalism
Haig Patapan examines a theory of ‘deliberative federalism‘ that claims ‘federalism, in giving political and legal authority to disparate voices within the federal state, can make institutional room for deliberation‘, which in turn might have salutary effects on the protection of rights in federal societies. Considering evidence from the United States, they reach the conclusion...
In Defence of Empirical Entanglement: The Methodological Flaw in Waldron‘s Case against Judicial Review
Jeremy Waldron‘s sustained critique of judicial review has provoked a series of responses endeavouring either to defend that institution or to join in the critique with renewed zeal. All of the responses to date accept the methodological premise of Waldron‘s intervention – that judicial review may be defended or critiqued in abstract normative terms once...
Introduction
Prof King will introduce and moderate the panel along with Prof Levy.
Squaring the Circle? Bringing Deliberation and Participation Together in Processes of Constitution-Making
This chapter looks at recent participatory exercises in constitutional reform and aims to help further define and tailor standards for deliberative democratic good practice in constitution-making. Among the models of popular participation which the authors discuss are constitutional referendums such as Scotland‘s independence referendum; citizens‘ assemblies such as those set up in British Columbia, the...