1st Edition
The Law and Politics of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments in Asia
This book explains how the idea and practice of UCA are shaped by, and inform, constitutional politics through various social and political actors, and in both formal and informal amendment processes, across Asia.
This is the first book-length study of the law and politics of unconstitutional constitutional amendments in Asia. Comprising ten case studies from across the continent, and four broader, theoretical chapters, the volume provides an interdisciplinary, comparative perspective on the rising phenomenon of unconstitutional constitutional amendments (UCA) across a range of political, legal, and institutional contexts. The volume breaks new ground by venturing beyond the courts to consider UCA not only as a judicial doctrine, but also as a significant feature of political and intellectual discourse.
The book will be a valuable reference for law and political science researchers, as well as for policymakers and NGOs working in related fields. Offering broad coverage of jurisdictions in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, it will be useful to scholars and practitioners within Asia as well as to those seeking to better understand the law and politics of the region.
Introduction
- Rehan Abeyratne & Ngoc Son Bui, Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments as Constitutional Politics
- Koichi Nakano, The Politics Of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendment in Japan:The Case of The Pacifist Article 9
- Ryan Mitchell, ‘State Form’ in the Theory and Practice of Constitutional Change in Modern China
- Bui Ngoc Son, Unconstitutional Constitution in Vietnamese Discourse
- HP Lee and Yvonne Tew, The Law and Politics of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments in Malaysia
- Matthew J Nelson, Amending Constitutional Standards of Parliamentary Piety in Pakistan? Political and Judicial Debates
- Mara Malagodi, Limiting Constituent Power? Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments and Time-Bound Constitution Making in Nepal
- Jiunn-Rong Yeh, Beyond Unconstitutionality: The Public Oversights of Constitutional Revision in Taiwan
- Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, Thailand’s Unamendability: Politics of Two Democracies
- Surya Deva, Constitutional Politics Over (Un)Constitutional Amendments: The Indian Experience
- Ridwanul Hoque, The Politics of Unconstitutional Amendment in Bangladesh
- Richard Albert, The Power of Judicial Nullification in Asia and the World
- Andrew Harding, Is the ‘Basic Structure Doctrine’ a Basic Structure Doctrine?
- Silvia Suteu, Eternity Clauses as Tools for Exclusionary Constitutional Projects
- Yaniv Roznai, Why There? Explanatory Theories and Institutional Features Behind Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments in Asia
Part I: Discursive Model
Part II: Denotive Model
Part III: Decisive Model
Part IV. Commentaries
Biography
Rehan Abeyratne is Associate Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a co-editor of Towering Judges: A Comparative Study of Constitutional Judges (2021) as well as the forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Asian Parliaments.
Ngoc Son Bui is Associate Professor of Asian Laws at the University of Oxford Faculty of Law. He is the author of Constitutional Change in the Contemporary Socialist World (2020) and Confucian Constitutionalism in East Asia (Routledge, 2016).
