Constitutional Courts in New Democracies: Understanding Variation in East Asia
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Tom Ginsburg
The article shows how judicial review has expanded around the globe from the United States, Western Europe, and Japan to become a regular feature of constitutional design in Africa and Asia. Although the formal power to exercise judicial review is now nearly universal in democratic states, courts have varied in the extent to which they are willing to exercise this power in practice. After decades of authoritarian rule, East Asia has experienced a wave of democratization since the mid-1980s. Transitions toward more open political structures have been effectuated in Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Mongolia and Indonesia, and even the Leninist states of China and Vietnam have experienced tentative moves toward more participatory politics. These political transitions have been accompanied by an important but understudied phenomenon: the emergence of powerful constitutional courts in the region. Constitutional courts have exercised review to challenge political authorities when conflicts arise among government institutions or governments impinge on individual rights.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontiers Article
- Hard Code Now!
- The Common Core of European Private Law in Boxes and Bundles
- The Politics of European Contract Law: Who has an Interest in What Kind of Contract Law for Europe?
- Judicial Cooperation in the European Courts: Testing Three Models of Judicial Behavior
- Advances Article
- North America as a Medieval Legal Construction
- Human Rights Risk, Infrastructure Projects and Developing Countries
- Intellectual Property Rights and Legal Order
- Constitutional Courts in New Democracies: Understanding Variation in East Asia
- Topics Article
- Foreign Inspired Courts as Agencies of Peace in Troubled Societies. A Plea for Realism and for Creativity.
- Legislative incursions into modern trusts doctrine in England: The Trustee Act 2000 and the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
- The Rise and Fall of the Rehabilitative Ideal in Italian Criminal Justice
- Conflict of Interests and the Fair Dealing Duty
