Constitutional Interpretation

Edited by Sujit Choudhry, Principal, Circle Barristers, Toronto, Canada, Catherine O’Regan, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Law; and Inaugural Director, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford, UK and Carlos Bernal-Pulido, David Boies Distinguished Chair in Law, Tulane Law School, New Orleans; and Professor of Law, University of La Sabana, Colombia, USA

• Contents1 Constitutional interpretation in the Third Wave: the importance of text and context 1Sujit Choudhry, Catherine O’Regan and Carlos Bernal2 Text, history, and precedent 43Jamal Greene and Yvonne Tew3 The living constitution in collaborative context 59Aileen Kavanagh4 Purposive/teleological interpretation 83Christoph Möllers5 Judicial usages of preambles in constitutional interpretation: fromrhetorical flourish to meta-constitutional law 99Jaclyn L Neo and Diego Werneck Arguelhes6 Directive principles 119Lael K Weis7 Interpreting unconstitutional constitutional amendments 145Rehan Abeyratne and Yaniv Roznai8 Interpreting constitutions and statutes: convergence more than specificity,whether in common law or civil law 169Stéphane Beaulac9 The role of legal professional culture in constitutional interpretation 191Theunis Roux10 Federalism 207Karl Kössler11 Aversive constitutionalism 227Tarunabh Khaitan12 Constitutionalism and peacemaking: comparative perspectives 249Ruti Teitel13 Social transformation 269Gautam Bhatia14 Popular constitutionalism 289Sergio Verdugo15 Defensive constitutional interpretation under authoritarianism 309Tom Gerald Daly16 The role of comparative materials in constitutional interpretation 335Cheryl Saunders17 The role of the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights onconstitutional interpretation in Africa 355Adem K Abebe and Charles Manga Fombad18 The American Convention on Human Rights in Latin American domestic courts 375Jorge Contesse19 Constitutional interpretation in European countries and the influence of theEuropean Convention on Human Rights and the European Union 393Colm O’Cinneide20 Constitutional interpretation and international human rights law 415Dire Tladi and James Fowkes21 International humanitarian law and international criminal law inconstitutional interpretation 439Hannah Woolaver22 International refugee law and constitutional interpretation 459Daniel Ghezelbash23 International economic law in constitutional interpretation 485David Schneiderman24 Constitutional interpretation in Australia 503James Edelman25 Constitutional interpretation in Brazil 509Luís Roberto Barroso26 Constitutional interpretation in Canada: watering living trees andCanadian values 515Rosalie Silberman Abella27 Constitutional interpretation in Colombia 523Carlos Bernal28 Constitutional interpretation: the German Federal Constitutional Court 531Gertrude Lübbe-Wolff29 Constitutional interpretation in India 543Dhananjaya Chandrachud30 The 2010 Constitution of Kenya and its interpretation: a personal footnote 549Willy Mutunga31 Poland 561Lech Garlicki32 Constitutional interpretation in South Africa 569Catherine O’Regan33 Constitutional interpretation: the UK experience 575Brenda Hale34 Constitutional interpretation in the United States 581Nancy Gertner

‘By combining contributions from highly respected judges with an academic tradition and specialists who are authorities in their field, this Research Handbook is unique in offering, in a succinct and powerful way, a structured overview that allows us to understand not only how constitutions are interpreted in different countries on all continents where constitutional judges exercise significant power, but also the spirit that gives life and distinctiveness to the methods of constitutional interpretation in each jurisdiction. as well as the way in which these methods support constitutional judges, within the respect of legal parameters, in making decisions that inevitably have high political impact.’