Global constitutionalism: international standards and regional legal interpretations in Asia: Book review: Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives / ed. by T.Suami, A.Peters, D.Vanoverbeke, M.Kumm. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2020

Available in Russian

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Author: Andrey Medushevsky

DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2024-2-181-196

Keywords: global constitutionalism; international and constitutional law; regional legal systems; Asian legal systems; legal identity; legal transplants; judicial interpretation; pros and cons of legal globalization in Eastern Asia

Abstract

The importance of such fundamental constitutional principles as the rule of law, democracy, and human rights protection is beyond question. These principles have become the grounds for the legitimacy of all political systems, whether with democratic or non-democratic or even authoritarian regimes. Interpretations of these principles, however, and their substance and limits vary dramatically in different regions of the world regarding such issues as the forms and methods of constitutionalisation, legal development, judicial interpretation, practical implementation, and political treatment. This investigation of Asian perspectives focuses on the dominant theories, rule of law treatments, social and socio-ecological aspects of international and national constitutionalism, the changing institutional infrastructure, and the role of international treatises, international courts, and constitutional justice in their implementation. Comparative analysis reveals problematic areas of regional legal regulation where global constitutionalism has unstable positions and confronts various difficulties regarding ideological restrictions, legal traditions, and weakness of civil society institutions as well as the political attitudes of ruling elites. The Asian region demonstrates a great interest in global constitutionalism along with a growing variety in its interpretation – from almost total rejection (China) to a more balanced approach (Japan) and full adoption (South Korea). This asymmetry of approaches reflects the search for some common orientation for the East-Asian region in a world of global constitutionalism which until now has included quite different views of its binding force, the role of the sovereignty principle, new cosmopolitan legal trends, and the possibility of adopting Western legal concepts to regional and national legal systems. The important part of the current debate between protagonists and opponents of global constitutionalism concerns the understanding of the so-called legal identity, traditional values, and peculiarities of the non-Western regions of the world and their role in globalization as both recipients and donors of new ideas, concepts, and experience in the promotion or restriction of the world-wide constitutionalism transformation. The book under review — “Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives” — provides a good opportunity to summarize new approaches and arguments of Western and Eastern scholars. Their principal questions are how broad the limits of global constitutionalism’s interpretation should be; how this theory could reflect the necessities, demands, and aspirations of the non-Western part of humankind; what should be the practical measures for its implementation; and what will be its original impact in the creation of new international law system.

About the author: Andrey Medushevsky – Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, Tenured Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Medushevsky A. (2024) Global'nyy konstitutsionalizm: internatsional'nye standarty i regional'nye pravovye interpretatsii v Azii: Retsenziya na knigu: Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives / ed. by T.Suami, A.Peters, D.Vanoverbeke, M.Kumm. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2020 [Global constitutionalism: international standards and regional legal interpretations in Asia: Book review: Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives / ed. by T.Suami, A.Peters, D.Vanoverbeke, M.Kumm. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2020]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.33, no.2, pp.181–196. (In Russian).

References

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Suami T., Peters A., Vanoverbeke D., Kumm M. (eds.) (2020) Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.