An historical introduction to western constitutional law / R.C. van Caenegem.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Caenegem, R. C. van, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional history--Europe.

Constitutional history.

Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 338 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

System Details:

text file

PDF

Summary:

The constitutional question is of paramount importance in the political and nationalist agenda of late twentieth-century Europe. Professor van Caenegem's new book addresses fundamental questions of constitutional organisation: democracy versus autocracy, unitary versus federal organisation, pluralism versus intolerance, by analysing different models of constitutional government through an historical perspective. The approach is chronological: constitutionalism is explained as the result of many centuries of trial and error through a narrative which begins in the early Middle Ages and concludes with contemporary debates, focusing on Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Special attention is devoted to the rise of the rule of law, and of constitutional, parliamentary, and federal forms of government. The epilogue discusses the future of liberal democracy as a universal model.

Contents:

An 'intelligible field of study' 1

Main themes 10

2 Tribal kingship: from the fall of Rome to the end of the Merovingians 34

3 The First Europe: the Carolingian empire 43

The political framework 43

Fundamental characteristics 44

The public law 45

Decline of the First Europe 50

4 Europe divided: the post-Carolingian era 54

The disintegration of the Frankish empire 54

Feudalism 56

The seigniory 61

The empire 63

The Church 67

5 The foundation of the modern state 72

General outline 72

The new structures 74

Half-way between feudalism and the modern state 76

The legal limitations of the late medieval monarchy 78

An oppressive or a democratic state? 88

6 The classic absolutism of the Ancient Regime 91

General characteristics 91

Analysis of the public law in two countries 98

7 The absolute state no lasting model 108

General considerations 108

The transformation of English kingship 109

Enlightened absolutism 125

The Republic of the United Netherlands 142

The United States of America 150

The French Revolution and the Napoleonic regime 174

8 The bourgeois nation state 194

General outline 194

Great Britain 196

France after Napoleon 200

Germany from Napoleon to Wilhelm II 217

Belgium and the Netherlands 230

Switzerland 241

9 The liberal model transformed or rejected 244

The liberal state transformed 244

The liberal state rejected 247

The Bolshevik Revolution and the Constitution of the Soviet Union 249

Germany and the Third Reich 270.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781139170871

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.