Constitutions Compared

Book excerpt: The 5th edition of this handbook provides a user-friendly introduction to comparative constitutional law. For each area of constitutional law, a general introduction and a comparative overview is provided, which is then followed by more detailed country chapters on that specific area. In this fifth edition, the author has expanded several chapters to provide for even more detail on national legal systems and constitutional comparison. In addition, he has updated the discussion wherever necessary. The book has also been expanded with a larger number of (sub)headings so as to allow for a better overview. Furthermore, this book most notably includes many constitutional developments in the constitutional systems within our scope. Including the 'Brexit' (to be) and the new compositions of the national and the European Parliament. In the previous edition the EU has more extensively been woven into this book, as a constitutional system per se and as an international organization which heavily impacts upon domestic constitutional law. This new edition has been expanded with chapters on human rights as they are protected in the constitutional legal systems, as well as in the multi-layered European legal order.This book has proven its success as a helpful guide for students who are for the first time exploring comparative constitutional law, and a solid foundation for more advanced graduate-level courses. It remains a thorough introduction which purports to give an overview, however with quite a few examples and applications in practice, and also sufficient legal and practical details to be accessible and to the point, whilst at the same time providing for the whole picture and highlighting general constitutional questions and perspectives.