Wojciech Sadurski's Books

Constitutional Public Reason

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Public reason, which urges that only laws based on principles reasonably agreeable to all those bound by them are legitimate, has rarely been applied to constitutional law, and never in a comparative way. This book aspires to fill that gap, by studying the use of public reason in different constitutional systems. In doing so, it studies public reason both as a normative idea - as a principle postulated for democratic constitutionalism, and as a descriptive account - as helping to understand many important doctrines in constitutional adjudication of some leading constitutional courts around the world, and also in the supranational sphere. Constitutional Public Reason questions the performance of leading 'exemplars of public reasons', including the top courts of the United States, India, Canada, Australia, Germany, and South Africa, as well as the European Court of Human Rights. It also attempts to show how this performance can be improved in fields such as freedom of expression, non-establishment of religion, and anti-discrimination law. Ultimately, it finds that the best resonance between the ideal of public reason and constitutional interpretation is found in doctrines that locate the illegitimacy of laws in the wrongful motives (or purposes) pursued by legislators. Scrutinising motives is often as important as scrutinising consequences.

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Page Count

417

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192696688

ISBN 13

9780192696687

A Pandemic of Populists

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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A Pandemic of Populists

By: Wojciech Sadurski

Explores the rise of populism in power, focusing on its causes, characteristics, impact on democracy, and how to fight back.

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259

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1009224506

ISBN 13

9781009224505

Poland's Constitutional Breakdown

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Poland's Constitutional Breakdown

By: Wojciech Sadurski

Since 2015, Poland's populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has been dismantling the major checks and balances of the Polish state and subordinating the courts, the civil service, and the media to the will of the executive. Political rights have been radically restricted, and the Party has captured the entire state apparatus. The speed and depth of these antidemocratic movements took many observers by surprise: until now, Poland was widely regarded as an example of a successful transitional democracy. Poland's anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy? These answers are formulated against a backdrop of current worldwide trends towards populism, authoritarianism, and what is sometimes called 'illiberal democracy'. As this book argues, the Polish variant of 'illiberal democracy' is an oxymoron. By undermining the separation of powers, the PiS concentrates all power in its own hands, rendering any democratic accountability illusory. There is, however, no inevitability in these anti-democratic trends: this book considers a number of possible remedies and sources of hope, including intervention by the European Union.

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Page Count

316

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192576976

ISBN 13

9780192576972

Constitutionalism and the Enlargement of Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Constitutionalism and the Enlargement of Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

Written at the intersection of law and political science, this book adopts a new and original perspective on the legal implications of the Eastward enlargement of the Council of Europe and the European Union. Case studies offer a novel examination of the development of legal norms and institutions within these supranational bodies.

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263

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199696780

ISBN 13

9780199696789

Equality and Legitimacy

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Equality and Legitimacy

By: Wojciech Sadurski

This book examines the relationship between the idea of legitimacy of law in a democratic system and equality, conceived in a tripartite sense: political, legal, and social. Exploring the constituent elements of the legal philosophy underlying concepts of legitimacy, this book seeks to demonstrate how a conception of democratic legitimacy is necessary for understanding and reconciling equality and political legitimacy by tracing and examining the conceptions of equality in political, legal, and social dimensions. In the sphere of political equality this book argues that the best construction of equality in a democratic system - which resonates with the legitimizing function of majority rule - is that of equality of political opportunity. It is largely procedural, but those procedures represent important substantive values built into a majoritarian system. In the sphere of legal equality it argues that a plausible conception of non-discrimination can be constructed through a "reflective equilibrium" process, and should reject a thoughtless assumption that the presence of some particular criteria of differentiations necessarily taints a legal classification as discriminatory. Finally, the chapters on social equality explore, in some detail, the currently influential, and presumptively attractive, "luck egalitarianism": the idea that social equality calls for neutralizing the disparate effects of bad brute luck upon a person's position in society.

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Page Count

280

Publisher

OUP Oxford

Published Date

ISBN 10

0191562769

ISBN 13

9780191562761

Freedom of Speech and Its Limits

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Freedom of Speech and Its Limits

By: Wojciech Sadurski

In authoritarian states, the discourse on freedom of speech, conducted by those opposed to non-democratic governments, focuses on the core aspects of this freedom: on a right to criticize the government, a right to advocate theories arid ideologies contrary to government-imposed orthodoxy, a right to demand institutional reforms, changes in politics, resignation of the incompetent and the corrupt from positions of authority. The claims for freedom of speech focus on those exercises of freedom that are most fundamental and most beneficial to citizens - and which are denied to them by the government. But in a by-and large democratic polity, where these fundamental benefits of freedom of speech are generally enjoyed by the citizens, the public and scholarly discourse on freedom of speech hovers about the peripheries of that freedom; the focus is on its outer boundaries rather than at the central territory of freedom of speech. Those borderline cases, in which people who are otherwise genuinely committed to the core aspects of freedom of speech may sincerely disagree, include pornography, racist hate speech and religious bigoted expressions, defamation of politicians and of private persons, contempt of court, incitement to violence, disclosure of military or commercial secrets, advertising of merchandise such as alcohol or cigarettes or of services and entertainment such as gambling and prostitution.

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237

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

9401093423

ISBN 13

9789401093422

Rights Before Courts

A Study of Constitutional Courts in Postcommunist States of Central and Eastern Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Rights Before Courts

A Study of Constitutional Courts in Postcommunist States of Central and Eastern Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

Challenging the conventional wisdom that constitutional courts are the best device that democratic systems have for the protection of individual rights, Wojciech Sadurski examines carefully the most recent wave of activist constitutional courts: those that have emerged after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to most other analysts and scholars he does not take for granted that they are a "force for the good", but rather subjects them to critical scrutiny against the background of a wide-ranging comparative and theoretical analysis of constitutional judicial review in the modern world. He shows that, in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, their record in protecting constitutional rights has been mixed, and their impact upon the vibrancy of democratic participation and public discourse about controversial issues often negative. Sadurski urges us to reconsider the frequently unthinking enthusiasm for the imposition of judicial limits upon constitutional democracy. In the end, his reflections go to the very heart of the fundamental dilemma of constitutionalism and political theory: how best to find the balance between constitutionalism and democracy? The lively, if imperfect, democracies in Central and Eastern Europe provide a fascinating terrain for raising this question, and testing traditional answers. This innovative, wide-ranging and thought-provoking book will become essential reading for scholars and students alike in the fields of comparative constitutionalism and political theory, particularly for those with an interest in legal and political developments in the postcommunist world

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404

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1402030061

ISBN 13

9781402030062

Moral Pluralism and Legal Neutrality

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Moral Pluralism and Legal Neutrality

By: Wojciech Sadurski

lt is a commonplace that law and morality intersect and interpenetrate in all the areas of legal decision-making; that in order to make sense of constitutional, statutory or common-law questions, judges and other legal decision-makers must first resolve certain philosophical issues which include moral judgments of right and wrang_ This is particularly evident with regard to constitutional interpretation, especially when constitutions give a mandate for the protection of the substantive norms and values entrenched as constitutional rights. In these Situations, as a leading contemporary legal philosopher observed, the "Constitution fuses legal and moral issues, by making the validity of a law depend on an answer to complex moral 1 problems". But the need for substantive value elucidation is not confined, of course, only to constitutional interpretation under Bills of Rights. This, however, immediately raises a dilemma stemming from the moral diversity and pluralism of modern liberal societies. How can law remain sensitive to this pluralism and yet provide clear answers to the problems which call for a legal resolution? Sharply conflicting values in modern societies clash in the debates over the death penalty, abortion, homosexuality, separation of state and religion, the scope of the freedom of the press, or affirmative action. lt would often be difficult to discern a broader consensus within which these clashes of values operate, unless this consensus were described in such vague terms as to render it practically meaningless.

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Page Count

225

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

940091928X

ISBN 13

9789400919280

Constitutionalism and the Enlargement of Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Constitutionalism and the Enlargement of Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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263

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199696780

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9780199696789

A Pandemic of Populists

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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A Pandemic of Populists

By: Wojciech Sadurski

Explores the rise of populism in power, focusing on its causes, characteristics, impact on democracy, and how to fight back.

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259

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1009224506

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9781009224505

Poland's Constitutional Breakdown

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Poland's Constitutional Breakdown

By: Wojciech Sadurski

Poland's anti-constitutional breakdown poses three questions that this book sets out to answer: What, exactly, has happened since 2015? Why did it happen? And what are the prospects for a return to liberal democracy?

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305

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198840500

ISBN 13

9780198840503

Central and Eastern Europe After Transition

Towards a New Socio-legal Semantics

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Central and Eastern Europe After Transition

Towards a New Socio-legal Semantics

By: Wojciech Sadurski

How have national identities changed, developed and reacted in the wake of transition from communism to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe? Central and Eastern Europe After Transition defines and examines new autonomous differences adopted at the state and the supranational level in the post-transitional phase of the post-Communist area, and considers their impact on constitutions, democracy and legal culture. With representative contributions from older and newer EU members, the book provides a broad set of cultural points for reference. Its comparative and interdisciplinary approach includes a useful selection of bibliographical resources specifically devoted to the Central Eastern European countries' transitions.

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Page Count

375

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

131716900X

ISBN 13

9781317169000

Rights Before Courts

A Study of Constitutional Courts in Postcommunist States of Central and Eastern Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Rights Before Courts

A Study of Constitutional Courts in Postcommunist States of Central and Eastern Europe

By: Wojciech Sadurski

This is a completely revised and updated second edition of Rights Before Courts (2005, paper edition 2008). This book carefully examines the most recent wave of the emergence and case law of activist constitutional courts: those that were set up after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to most other analysts and scholars, the study does not take for granted that they are a “force for good” but rather subjects them to critical scrutiny against a background of wide-ranging comparative and theoretical analysis of constitutional judicial review in the modern world. The new edition takes in new case law and constitutional developments in the decade since the first edition, including considering the recent disturbing disempowerment of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (which previously was probably the most powerful constitutional court in the world) resulting from the fundamental constitutional changes brought about by the Fidesz government.

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455

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

9401789363

ISBN 13

9789401789363

Moral Pluralism and Legal Neutrality

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Moral Pluralism and Legal Neutrality

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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224

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Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

9400919298

ISBN 13

9789400919297

Law and Evil

The Evolutionary Perspective

By: Wojciech Załuski

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Law and Evil

The Evolutionary Perspective

By: Wojciech Załuski

Law and Evilpresents an alternative evolutionary picture of man, focusing on the origins and nature of human evil, and demonstrating its useful application in legal-philosophical analyses. Using this representation of human nature, Wojciech Zaluski analyses the development of law, which he interprets as moving from evolutionary ethics to genuine ethics, as well as arguing in favour of metaethical realism and ius naturale. Zaluski argues that human nature is undoubtedly ambivalent: human beings have been endowed by natural selection with moral, immoral, and neutral tendencies (the first ambivalence), and the moral tendencies themselves are ambivalent (the second ambivalence), giving rise to an inferior form of ethics called 'evolutionary ethics' Introducing a novel distinction between two types of evil, primary and secondary, this book explores the differences between evolutionary ethics and genuine ethics in order to analyse the history of legal systems and the controversy between natural law and legal positivism. Engaging and thought-provoking, this insightful book will be vital reading for both legal scholars and philosophers, especially those of law and moral philosophy. Evolutionary biologists with an interest in a philosophical interpretation of the results of evolutionary biology will also find this book an important read.

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219

Publisher

Edward Elgar Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1786436507

ISBN 13

9781786436504

Giving Desert Its Due

Social Justice and Legal Theory

By: Wojciech Sadurski

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Giving Desert Its Due

Social Justice and Legal Theory

By: Wojciech Sadurski

During the last half of the twentieth century, legal philosophy (or legal theory or jurisprudence) has grown significantly. It is no longer the domain of a few isolated scholars in law and philosophy. Hundreds of scholars from diverse fields attend international meetings on the subject. In some universities, large lecture courses of five hundred students or more study it. The primary aim of the Law and Philosophy Library is to present some of the best original work on legal philosophy from both the Anglo-American and European traditions. Not only does it help make some of the best work avail able to an international audience, but it also encourages increased awareness of, and interaction between, the two major traditions. The primary focus is on full-length scholarly monographs, although some edited volumes of original papers are also included. The Library editors are assisted by an Editorial Advisory Board of internationally renowed scholars. Legal philosophy should not be considered a narrowly circumscribed field.

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