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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2018
In considering the articles in this Special Issue, I am struck by the importance of a set of factors that, in my view, both run through the articles like a leitmotif, as well as shape the major ‘take away’ lesson(s) from the articles. In this short commentary, I elaborate on these factors and the lesson(s) to take from them through five ‘Cs’: context; complexity; contestation; the framework of constitutions; and the role of comparative law. The first three ‘Cs’ are lessons from the case studies of the articles themselves, while the second two ‘Cs’ are offered as lessons to help take the dialogue forward. Fundamentally, these five ‘Cs’ highlight the importance of the articles in this Special Issue and the conference from which they emerged on the one hand, while on the other hand, also making us aware of what are the limits of what we should conclude from the individual articles. In other words, taken together, the five ‘Cs’ are, one might say, lessons about lessons.
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore.
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2. See for eg the Cambridge University Press Series on ‘Law in Context’ <www.cambridge.org/core/series/law-in-context/> accessed 2 July 2018 and the International Journal of Law in Context <www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context> accessed 2 July 2018.
3. Jaakko Husa, ‘Comparison’ (2018) Helsinki Legal Studies Research Paper 51, 5 <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3174643> accessed 2 July 2018 (forthcoming in Law, David S and Langford, Malcolm (eds), Research Methods in Constitutional Law: A Handbook (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018))Google Scholar .
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5. Shamshad Pasarlay, ‘Constitutional Incrementalism in a Religiously Divided Society: The Case of Afghanistan’, this Special Issue, xx.
6. Matthew Nelson, ‘Indian Basic Structure Jurisprudence in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan: Reconfiguring the Constitutional Politics of Religion’, this Special Issue, xx.
7. Shah (n 4) 21.
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10. ibid 47.
11. ibid 45.
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13. Cotterrell, Sociological Jurisprudence (n 8) 167.
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20. ibid 12–13.
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