Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era - Paperback

by Vicki C. Jackson (Author)

Constitutional law in the United States and around the world now operates within an increasingly transnational legal environment of international treaties, customary international law, supranational infrastructures of human rights and trade law, and growing comparative judicial awareness. This new environment is reflected in increasing cross-national references in constitutional court decisions around the world. The constellation of legal orders in which established constitutional regimes operate has changed - there are more bodies generating law, more international legal sources, and more multi-national interactions that bring into view various legal orders. How do these transnational phenomena affect our understanding of the role of constitutions and of courts in deciding constitutional cases? Constitutional Engagement in a Transnational Era explores this question, looking at constitutional court decisions from around the world, and identifying postures of resistance, convergence or engagement with international and foreign law. For the United States, the book argues for cautious engagement by the Supreme Court with transnational sources of law in interpreting the national constitution.

Author Biography

Vicki C. Jackson is the Thurgood Marshall Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School and previously taught at the Georgetown University Law Center as Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law. Professor Jackson is co-author with Professor Mark Tushnet of Comparative Constitutional Law (2d ed. 2006), a leading coursebook, and co-edited, also with Professor Tushnet, Defining the Field of Comparative Constitutional Law (2002). Other books include Federal Courts Stories (2010) (co-editor with Judith Resnik) and Inside the Supreme Court: The Institution and its Procedures (2008) (with Susan Bloch). Professor Jackson has also served as a Vice-President of the International Association of Constitutional Law.