Balancing Constitutional Rights: The Origins and Meanings of Postwar Legal Discourse (Cambridge Studies in Constitutional Law, Series Number 10)

Bomhoff, Jacco

ISBN 10: 1107044413 / ISBN 13: 9781107044418

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2014

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781107044418

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Balancing Constitutional Rights: The Origins and Meanings of Postwar Legal Discourse (Cambridge Studies in Constitutional Law, Series Number 10)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107044413
• ISBN 13: 9781107044418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The language of balancing is pervasive in constitutional rights jurisprudence around the world. In this book, Jacco Bomhoff offers a comparative and historical account of the origins and meanings of this talismanic form of language, and of the legal discourse to which it is central. Contemporary discussion has tended to see the increasing use of balancing as the manifestation of a globalization of constitutional law. This book is the first to argue that 'balancing' has always meant radically different things in different settings. Bomhoff uses detailed case studies of early post-war US and German constitutional jurisprudence to show that the same unique language expresses both biting scepticism and profound faith in law and adjudication, and both deep pessimism and high aspirations for constitutional rights. An understanding of these radically different meanings is essential for any evaluation of the work of constitutional courts today.

About the Author

Jacco Bomhoff is Associate Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science.