The negotiable constitution : on the limitation of rights / Grégoire C.N. Webber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Webber, Grégoire C. N. (Grégoire Charles N.), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutions.

Civil rights.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 231 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

System Details:

text file

PDF

Summary:

In matters of rights, constitutions tend to avoid settling controversies. With few exceptions, rights are formulated in open-ended language, seeking consensus on an abstraction without purporting to resolve the many moral-political questions implicated by rights. The resulting view has been that rights extend everywhere but are everywhere infringed by legislation seeking to resolve the very moral-political questions the constitution seeks to avoid. The Negotiable Constitution challenges this view. Arguing that underspecified rights call for greater specification, Grégoire C. N. Webber draws on limitation clauses common to most bills of rights to develop a new understanding of the relationship between rights and legislation. The legislature is situated as a key constitutional actor tasked with completing the specification of constitutional rights. In turn, because the constitutional project is incomplete with regards to rights, it is open to being re-negotiated by legislation struggling with the very moral-political questions left underdetermined at the constitutional level.

Contents:

Constitution as activity

Received approach to the limitation of rights

Challenging the age of balancing

Constituting rights by limitation

Democratic activity of limiting rights

Justifying rights in a free and democratic society.

Notes:

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

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780511691867

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.