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Recent Work in Asian Constitutional Studies: A Review Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Andrew HARDING  and
Ngoc Son BUI
Andrew HARDING
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore, [email protected]
Ngoc Son BUI
Affiliation:
National University of Singapore, [email protected]
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Asian Journal of Comparative Law , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , July 2016 , pp. 163 - 183
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© National University of Singapore, 2016 

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Footnotes

*

Professor, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law; PhD (Monash), MA (Oxford), LLM (NUS) Solicitor (England & Wales).

**

Research Fellow, Centre for Asian Legal Studies, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law; PhD (HKU).

References

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2. For earlier publications on Asian constitutional law in this century, see CALDWELL, Ernest and NARDIN, Terry, eds, “Symposium on Methodological Approaches to Asian Constitutionalism” (2012) 81(1) Chicago-Kent Law Review 3 Google Scholar; “Symposium: The Changing Landscape of Asian Constitutionalism” (2010) 8(4) International Journal of Constitutional Law 766.

3. CHANG, Wen-Chen et al., Constitutionalism in Asia: Cases and Materials (Oxford: Hart, 2014)Google Scholar.

4. Ibid at 5.

5. DIXON, Rosalind and GINSBURG, Tom, eds, Comparative Constitutional Law in Asia (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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20. Chang et al., supra note 3 at 10.

21. Ibid at 9 [italics in original].

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23. But on the other hand it is not unusual. See e.g. the disagreement between Qianfan Zhang and Michael W Dowdle in the International Journal of Constitutional Law (I-CON) where Zhang rests on Western constitutionalist arguments and Dowdle rests on Chinese essentialist arguments. ZHANG, Qianfan, “A Constitution Without Constitutionalism? The Paths of Constitutional Development in China” (2010) 8(4) International Journal of Constitutional Law 950 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dowdle, Michael W, “Of Comparative Constitutional Monocropping: A Reply to Qianfan Zhang” (2010) 8(4) International Journal of Constitutional Law 977 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ZHANG, Qianfan, “Of Comparative Constitutional Monocropping: A Rejoinder to Michael Dowdle” (2010) 8(4) International Journal of Constitutional Law 985 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24. DIXON, Rosalind and GINSBURG, Tom, “Introduction” in Dixon and Ginsburg, eds, supra note 5, 1 at 10 Google Scholar.

25. Ibid at 11.

26. For more details, see MENSKI, Werner, Hindu Law: Beyond Tradition and Modernity (New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) at 156-163 Google Scholar.

27. Dixon and Ginsburg, supra note 24 at 11.

28. JACKSON, Peter A, Buddhadāsa: Theravada Buddhism and Modernist Reform in Thailand (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2003) at 6 Google Scholar and ff.

29. HARDING, Andrew, “Asian Law/Public Law/Comparative Law Stir-fry: Theory and Methods” in Tania GROPPI, Valeria PIERGIGLI, and Angelo RINELLA, eds, Asian Constitutionalism in Transition: A Comparative Perspective (Milan: Giuffrè Editore, 2008), 19 at 35-36Google Scholar.

30. GINSBURG, Tom, “Studying Japanese Law Because It’s There” (2010) 58 American Journal of Comparative Law 25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31. See generally FRANKLIN, Daniel P and BAUN, Michael J, eds, Political Culture and Constitutionalism: A Comparative Approach (Armonk, NY and London: ME Sharpe, Inc, 1995)Google Scholar.

32. GORDON, Ruth, “Growing Constitutions” (1999) 1 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 528 at 530-531 Google Scholar.

33. See GINSBURG, Tom, “Confucian Constitutionalism? The Emergence of Constitutional Review in Korea and Taiwan” (2002) 27(4) Law & Social Inquiry 763 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34. WENZEL, Nikolai G, “Constitutional Culture in Japan and the Philippines: Success and Failure in Post-War Constitutional Choice” (2010) 15 Pacific Focus: Inha Journal of International Studies 396 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35. Ibid.

36. HARDING, Andrew, The Constitution of Malaysia: A Contextual Analysis (Oxford and Portland, OR: Hart, 2012) at 2 Google Scholar.

37. Cited in DARLING, Frank C, “The Evolution of Law in Thailand” (1970) 32(2) The Review of Politics 200 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38. Cited in ibid at 199.

39. See for example, BUI, Ngoc Son, “Confucian Constitutionalism in Imperial Vietnam” (2013) 8(2) National Taiwan University Law Review 373 Google Scholar; AZHARI, Aidul Fitriciada, “Reconstruction of Constitutional Tradition in the Indonesian and Malaysian Constitutions: A Comparison” (2014) 2 Review of History and Political Science 105 Google Scholar.

40. See e.g., JACKSON, Vicki C and TUSHNET, Mark, Comparative Constitutional Law, 3rd edn (New York: Foundation Press, 2014)Google Scholar.

41. Yap, supra note 10 at 27 (“The dialogic model of judicial review allows for the legislature and the courts to be follow collaborators in upholding the rule of law”).

42. See generally, MEUWESE, Anne, “‘Constitutional Dialogue’: An Overview” (2013) 9(2) Utrecht Law Review 123 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43. See e.g., TUSHNET, Mark, Taking the Constitution Away from the Court (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; KRAMER, Larry, The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Bellamy, Richard, Political Constitutionalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44. Balkin, Jack M, Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45. Chang et al., supra note 3 at 312.

46. GINSBURG, Tom, “Constitutional Courts in Asia: Understanding Variation” in Andrew HARDING and Peter LEYLAND, eds, Constitutional Courts: A Comparative Study (London: Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing, 2009), 291 at 303 Google Scholar.

47. See country-chapters in Chen, supra note 6.

48. See the chapters on China and Vietnam in ibid.

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50. HÖLLER-FAM, Manuel, “Malaysia’s Civil Society in Light of the Bersih Movement” Heinrich Böll Stiftung Southeast Asia (16 December 2015), online: Heinrich Böll Stiftung <https://th.boell.org/en/2015/12/16/malaysias-civil-society-light-bersih-movement>>Google Scholar.

51. For some relevant work, see CHUA, Lynette J, Mobilizing Gay Singapore: Rights and Resistance in an Authoritarian State (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2014)Google Scholar; CHEESMAN, Nick, Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar’s Courts Make Law and Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; HARDING, Andrew and WHITING, Amanda, “Custodian of Civil Liberties and Justice in Malaysia: The Malaysian Bar and the Moderate State” in Terence C HALLIDAY, Lucien KARPIK, and Malcolm M FEELEY, eds, Fates of Political Liberalism in the British Post-Colony : The Politics of the Legal Complex (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 247 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; RODAN, Garry, ed, Political Oppositions in Industrialising Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 1996)Google Scholar.

52. For discussions on functionalism and contextualism, see JACKSON, Vicki C, “Comparative Constitutional Law: Methodologies” in Michel ROSENFELD and Andras SAJO, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)Google Scholar [Jackson, “Methodologies”], 54; TUSHNET, Mark, “The Possibilities of Comparative Constitutional Law” (1999) 108(6) Yale Law Journal 1225 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; HIRSCHL, Ran, Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)Google Scholar. An example of a casebook on comparative constitutional law adopting the functionalist approach is Norman Dorsen et al., Comparative Constitutionalism: Cases and Materials (St Paul, MN: Thomson/West, 2003). An example of a casebook on comparative constitutional law adopting the contextualist approach is JACKSON, Vicki C and TUSHNET, Mark, Comparative Constitutional Law, 3rd edn (St Paul, Minn: Thomson/West, 2014)Google Scholar.

53. TUSNHET, Mark, “Some Reflections on Method in Comparative Constitutional Law” in Sujit CHOUDHRY, ed, The Migration of Constitutional Ideas (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 67 at 72 Google Scholar [Tushnet, “Some Reflections”].

54. Ibid at 76.

55. Ginsburg and Dixon, eds, supra note 1.

56. Dixon and Ginsburg, supra note 24 at 2.

57. Ibid at 3-16.

58. A possible exception is Victor Ramraj, an Indo-Canadian scholar who was teaching at the National University of Singapore.

59. Ibid at 16.

60. Dixon and Ginsburg, supra note 24 at 16-17.

61. Ibid at 17.

62. Ibid at 74.

63. Hirschl, supra note 52 at 211-212. Hart’s series on constitutional systems of the world does insert Russia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and others.

64. Dixon and Ginsburg, supra note 24 at 17.

65. Chang et al., supra note 3 at 5.

66. Ibid.

67. Ibid.

68. Tushnet distinguishes two forms of contextualism, namely institutional and expressivist contextualism. The former emphasizes the institutional and doctrinal contexts, while the latter focuses on the social and cultural contexts. See Tushnet, “Some Reflections” supra note 53 at 76-80.

69. Tan, Kevin YL, The Constitution of Singapore: A Contextual Analysis (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015)Google Scholar; YEH, Jiunn-rong, The Constitution of Taiwan: A Contextual Analysis (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015)Google Scholar. Forthcoming volumes on Asian constitutions in this series will cover the Central Asian States, India, and Pakistan.

70. LANDAU, David, “Political Institutions and Judicial Role in Comparative Constitutional Law” (2010) 51(2) Harvard International Law Journal 14 Google Scholar.

71. See TSAGOURIAS, Nicholas, “Introduction – Constitutionalism: A Theoretical Roadmap” in Nicholas TSAGOURIAS, ed, Transnational Constitutionalism: International and European Models (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 1 at 2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Scott Gordon notes that the term “constitutionalism” was first used in 1832 in the US. See GORDON, Scott, Controlling the State: Constitutionalism from Ancient Athens to Today (Cambridge, Mass and London: Harvard University Press, 1999) at 5 Google Scholar.

72. Chang et al., supra note 3 at 6.

73. Ibid at 5.

74. Ibid at 2.

75. Chen, Albert YH, “The Achievement of Constitutionalism in Asia: Moving Beyond ‘Constitutions Without Constitutionalism’” in Chen, ed, supra note 6, 1 Google Scholar.

76. LANDAU, David, “Abusive Constitutionalism” (2013) 47 UC Davis Law Review 189 Google Scholar.

77. YEH, Jiunn-Rong and CHANG, Wen-Chen, “The Emergence of East Asian Constitutionalism: Features in Comparison” (2011) 59 American Journal of Comparative Law 805 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; TUSHNET, Mark, “Authoritarian Constitutionalism” (2015) 100 Cornell Law Review 391 Google Scholar; SILVERSTEIN, Gordon, “Singapore’s Constitutionalism: A Model, But of What Sort?” (2015) 100 Cornell Law Review Online 1 Google Scholar.

78. See generally, HARDING, Andrew and LEYLAND, Peter, The Constitutional System of Thailand: A Contextual Analysis (Oxford: Hart, 2011)Google Scholar.

79. Harding, Andrew, ed, Constitutionalism and Legal Change in Myanmar (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2016)Google Scholar (forthcoming), especially the Editorial Note on Section 59(f).

80. WECHSLER, Herbert, “Toward Neutral Principles of Constitutional Law” (1959) 73 Harvard Law Review 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81. TUSHNET, Mark, “Some Skepticism About Normative Constitutional Advice” (2008) 49 William & Mary Law Review 1473 Google Scholar.

82. Ibid at 1495.

83. Ibid.

84. Chen, Albert HY “Western Constitutionalism in Southeast Asia: Some Historical and Comparative Observations” in Ehlers, Glaser, and Prokati, eds, supra, note 7, 63 Google Scholar.

85. Ibid at 68.

86. For example, the classification of judicial review into central and decentralized models or the classification of types of government into presidentialism, parliamentarism, and semi-presidentialism. For a classificatory approach in comparative constitutional law in general, see Jackson, “Methodologies”, supra note 52.

87. K Tan, supra note 69.