Constitutional Identity

by Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn

Overview

In Constitutional Identity, Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn argues that a constitution acquires an identity through experience—from a mix of the political aspirations and commitments that express a nation’s past and the desire to transcend that past. It is changeable but resistant to its own destruction, and manifests itself in various ways, as Jacobsohn shows in examples as far flung as India, Ireland, Israel, and the United States.

Jacobsohn argues that the presence of disharmony—both the tensions within a constitutional order and those that exist between a constitutional document and the society it seeks to regulate—is critical to understanding the theory and dynamics of constitutional identity. He explores constitutional identity’s great practical importance for some of constitutionalism’s most vexing questions: Is an unconstitutional constitution possible? Is the judicial practice of using foreign sources to resolve domestic legal disputes a threat to vital constitutional interests? How are the competing demands of transformation and preservation in constitutional evolution to be balanced?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674047662
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/25/2010
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn is H. Malcolm MacDonald Professor of Constitutional and Comparative Law in the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin.

What People are Saying About This

Walter F. Murphy

I won't waste my time by providing a list of adjectives. Please invoke all that you can think of that praise this as a superb work. I'm both surprised and delighted that someone has the learning and imagination to write such a sweeping book. I'm doubly delighted that it's Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn who has done so.
— Walter F. Murphy, Princeton University

Mark Graber

Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn offers rich insights on the problems of constitutional identity; this is a seminal work in comparative constitutionalism and constitutional theory. The mere attempt to think about these problems is a worthwhile endeavor.
— Mark Graber, University of Maryland School of Law

Ran Hirschl

An important, thought-provoking work filled with brilliant, original ideas alongside fascinating examples. Constitutional Identity comes from one of America's leading scholars of comparative constitutionalism with an unmatched wealth of pertinent knowledge and intellectual integrity, glowingly manifested here.
— Ran Hirschl, University of Toronto, author of Constitutional Theocracy

Editorial Reviews

I won’t waste my time by providing a list of adjectives. Please invoke all that you can think of that praise this as a superb work. I’m both surprised and delighted that someone has the learning and imagination to write such a sweeping book. I’m doubly delighted that it’s Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn who has done so.

Walter F. Murphy

The beauty of Constitutional Identity derives both from the lucidity of Jacobsohn’s arguments and the cogency of his examples. Drawing primarily from cases arising before high courts in India, Ireland, Israel, South Africa, Turkey, and the U.S., it draws upon written opinions, interviews with judges, and a staggering range of secondary sources (perhaps a third of the book is footnotes). If the problems producing constitutional disharmonies are diverse, the legal and philosophical struggle to discover the core identities of the systems being studied and reconcile ‘the actual and the ideal provided for in a constitutional document’ is remarkably universal.

Choice - E. V. Schneier

Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn offers rich insights on the problems of constitutional identity; this is a seminal work in comparative constitutionalism and constitutional theory. The mere attempt to think about these problems is a worthwhile endeavor.

Mark Graber

An important, thought-provoking work filled with brilliant, original ideas alongside fascinating examples. Constitutional Identity comes from one of America’s leading scholars of comparative constitutionalism with an unmatched wealth of pertinent knowledge and intellectual integrity, glowingly manifested here.

Ran Hirschl

The beauty of Constitutional Identity derives both from the lucidity of Jacobsohn's arguments and the cogency of his examples. Drawing primarily from cases arising before high courts in India, Ireland, Israel, South Africa, Turkey, and the U.S., it draws upon written opinions, interviews with judges, and a staggering range of secondary sources (perhaps a third of the book is footnotes). If the problems producing constitutional disharmonies are diverse, the legal and philosophical struggle to discover the core identities of the systems being studied and reconcile "the actual and the ideal provided for in a constitutional document" is remarkably universal.
— E. V. Schneier

Choice