Handbook home
Constitutions in Global Perspective (LAWS90218)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
Contact information
February
Lecturers
Adrienne Stone (Coordinator)
Maarje de Visser
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: 13 MELB (13 6352), International: +(61 3) 9035 5511
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Overview
Availability(Quotas apply) | February |
---|---|
Fees | Look up fees |
This subject canvasses 11 of the most challenging current questions in comparative constitutional law. It does so from a global perspective, which appreciates the diversity of constitutional arrangements across the world while acknowledging their interconnections and their many shared problems. The issues on which the subject focusses in 2021 range across questions of method to problems of substance and will be explored both conceptually and empirically. Topics include, for example, comparative constitutional methods, constitutional identity, constitutional pluralism and constituent power. Each seminar is led by a comparative scholar affiliated with Melbourne Law School, drawing on the resources of one of the leading comparative constitutional law centres in the world.
Principal topics are likely to include:
- Comparative constitutional methods
- Pluralism
- The global south in comparative constitutional law
- Constitutional interpretation
- Constitutional amendment
- Comparing federations
- Constitutional repair after democratic decay
- Environmental constitutionalism
- Limitations on rights
- Guarantor institutions
- Global constitutionalism
- Future directions
The subject is coordinated by Cheryl Saunders and Anna Dziedzic, who will ensure interlinkages between seminars and will draw the subject together in a final seminar on future directions. The subject should be of considerable interest to Australian and international students from all regions of the world.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject will:
- Have an advanced understanding of theory, method and practice in comparative constitutional law
- Be able to engage critically with discussion and analysis in relation to key issues canvassed in this subject
- Be familiar with, and be able to apply to other contexts, insights from significant themes that run across one or more seminars including, for example, questions about culture and context; the tension between localism and universalism; and the links between domestic constitutional and international law
- Be well-placed to anticipate and apply analytical skills to other problems of method and substance in comparative constitutional law
- Understand the insights that can be derived for domestic constitutional arrangements from comparative experience, properly applied
- Be aware of the extent to which democratic constitutional systems share broadly comparable challenges, despite differences in context
Generic skills
Generic skills that will be developed through successful completion of this subject include:
- A capacity to understand and apply, at an advanced level, methods of comparative constitutional law that are appropriate for the purpose sought
- The ability to think conceptually and analytically about comparative constitutional law
- The ability to think conceptually and analytically about the relationship between domestic constitutional and international law
- An appreciation of how and why constitutional systems vary and evolve over time
- Advanced research skills in understanding and explaining issues involving comparative constitutional law in sufficient detail to be reliable for the purposes of sustaining an argument
- An ability to think creatively about problems and solutions for complex challenges in comparative constitutional law
- Advanced skills in researching issues in comparative constitutional law
Last updated: 8 November 2024