The forms and limits of constitutions as political insurance

---

Constitutional review, and constitutions more broadly, have been analyzed as providing political insurance for parties who risk declining power. This article develops a typology of risks against which insurance may be useful, and explains how each has its own distinctive institutional implications. It suggests that political elites may seek insurance against three distinct risks – to their power, person, and policies – and that each form of insurance implies somewhat different constitutional choices in terms of the jurisdiction, staffing, and access to courts. Furthermore, the article provides an account as to why insurance may be robust even in the face of downstream political change, addressing a key criticism of the original theory. The key idea is that insurance is more robust when it is “two-sided,” that is, consisting of mutual commitments from multiple parties. In this way, the article provides a general account of constitutions as a response to political risk and identifies specific conditions under which constitutions are likely to fulfill the aims or expectations of drafters for effective political insurance.

About the authors: Rosalind Dixon – Professor of Law, UNSW Sydney, Australia; Tom Ginsburg – Leo Spitz Professor of Law, University of Chicago and Research Associate, American Bar Foundation, Chicago, USA.

Citation: Dixon R., Ginsburg T. (2018) Konstitutsii kak politicheskaya strakhovka: formy i predely [The forms and limits of constitutions as political insurance]. Srav­nitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.27, no.6, pp.13–35. (In Russian).

References

Alexander G.S. (2006) The Global Debate Over Constitutional Property: Lessons for American Takings Jurisprudence, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Ali I., Son H.H. (2007) Measuring Inclusive Growth. Asian Development Review, vol.24, no.1, pp.11–31.

Alter K.J. (2013) The New Terrain of International Law: Courts, Politics, Rights, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Barak A. (2007) Purposive Interpretation in Law, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Benshoof J. (2014) Women, Peace, and Security. In: Genser J., Stagno Ugarte B. (eds.) The United Nations Security Council in the Age of Human Rights, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, pp.68–97.

Benvindo J.Z. (2010) On the Limits of Constitutional Adjudication: Deconstructing Balancing and Judicial Activism, Berlin: Springer.

Butt S., Crouch M., Dixon R. (2016) The First Decade of Indonesia’s Constitutional Court. Australian Journal of Asian Law, vol.16, no.2, pp.1–15.

Castles F. (2010) The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chaskalson M. (1995) Stumbling Towards Section 28: Negotiations over the Protection of Property Rights in the Interim Constitution. South African Journal on Human Rights, vol.11, pp.222–240.

Dixon R. (2007) Creating Dialogue about Socioeconomic Rights: Strong-form Versus Weak-form Judicial Review Revisited. International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol.5, no.3, pp.391–418.

Dixon R. (2015) Constitutional Drafting and Distrust. International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol.13, no.4, pp.819–846.

Dixon R. (2018) Constitutional Rights as Bribes. Connecticut Law Review, vol.50, no.3, pp.767–818.

Dixon R., Ginsburg T. (2011) The South African Constitutional Court and Socio-economic Rights as “Insurance Swaps”. Constitutional Court Review, vol.4, no.1, pp.1–29.

Dixon R., Ginsburg T. (2011) Deciding Not to Decide: Deferral in Constitutional Design. International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol.9, nos.3–4, pp.636–672.

Dixon R., Roux T. (2018) Constitutional Triumphs, Constitutional Disappointments: A Critical Assessment of the 1996 South African Constitution’s Local and International Influence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Eisgruber C. (1993) Justice and the Text: Rethinking the Constitutional Relationship Between Principle and Prudence. Duke Law Journal, vol.43, no.1, pp.1–14.

Emmert F. (2008) Rule of Law in Central and Eastern Europe. Fordham International Law Journal, vol.32, no.2, pp.551–586.

Epp C.R. (1998) The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Epperly B. (2013) The Provision of Insurance? Judicial Independence and the Post-Tenure Fate of Leaders. Journal of Law and Courts, vol.1, no.2, pp.247–278.

Farber D.A. (2002) Rights as Signals. Journal of Legal Studies, vol.31, no.1, pp.83–98.

Finkel J.S. (2008) Judicial Reform as Political Insurance: Argentina, Peru, and Mexico in the 1990s, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Garoupa N., Ginsburg T. (2015) Judicial Reputation: A Comparative Theory. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Gatmaytan D.M. (2011) The Judicial Review of Constitutional Amendments: The Insurance Theory in Post-Marcos Philippines. Philippine Law and Society Review, vol.1, no.1, pp.74–94.

Ginsburg T. (2003) Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ginsburg T., Versteeg M. (2014) Why Do Countries Adopt Constitutional Review? Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, vol.30, no.3, pp.587–622.

Ginsburg T., Huq A. (2016) Assessing Constitutional Performance. In: Ginsburg T., Huq A. (eds.) Assessing Constitutional Performance, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp.3–35.

Gough I. (1979) The Political Economy of the Welfare State, London: Macmillan.

Gulener S., Haşlak I. (2011) Relations Between Politics and Constitutional Review in Turkey with Special Reference to the Referrals of Republican Peoples Party: 2002–2010 Period. Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, vol.10, nos.2–3, pp.1–19.

Helmke G., Rosenbluth F. (2009) Regimes and the Rule of Law: Judicial Independence in Comparative Perspective. Annual Review of Political Science, vol.12, pp.345–366.

Hilbink L. (2007) Judges Beyond Politics in Dictatorship and Democracy: Lessons From Chile, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hirschl R. (2004) Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Hoffman E., Spitzer M.L. (1993) Willingness to Pay vs. Willingness to Accept: Legal and Economic Implications. Washington University Law Quarterly, vol.71, no.1, pp.59–114.

Inclán Oseguera S. (2009) Judicial Reform in Mexico: Political Insurance or the Search for Political Legitimacy? Political Research Quarterly, vol.62, no.4, pp.753–766.

Kronman A.T. (1985) Alexander Bickel’s Philosophy of Prudence. Yale Law Journal, vol.94, no.7, pp.1567–1616.

Landes W.M., Posner R. (1975) The Independent Judiciary in an Interest-Group Perspective. Journal of Law and Economics, vol.18, no.3, pp.875–901.

Landau D., Dixon R. (2015) Constraining Constitutional Change: Constitution-Making and Constitutional Design. Wake Forest Law Review, vol.50, no.4, pp.859–890.

Lin C.-C. (2012) The Birth and Rebirth of the Judicial Review in Taiwan – Its Establishment, Empowerment and Evolvement. National Taiwan University Law Review, vol.7, no.1, pp.167–222.

Morewedge C.K., Giblin C.E. (2015) Explanations of the Endowment Effect: An Integrative Review. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol.19, no.6, pp.339–348.

Neuborne B. (2003) The Supreme Court of India. International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol.1, no.3, pp.476–510.

Nunes R.M. (2010) Politics without Insurance: Democratic Competition and Judicial Reform in Brazil. Comparative Politics, vol.42, no.3, pp.313–331.

Pasquino P., Billi F. (eds.) (2009) The Political Origins of Constitutional Courts: Italy, Germany, France, Poland, Canada, United Kingdom, Rome: Adriano Olivetti Foundation.

Pozas-Loyo A., Ríos-Figueroa J. (2010) Enacting Constitutionalism: The Origins of Independent Judicial Institutions in Latin America. Comparative Politics, vol.42, no.3, pp.293–311.

Ramseyer M. (1994) The Puzzling (In)Dependence of Courts: A Comparative Approach. Journal of Legal Studies, vol.23, no.2, pp.721–747.

Randazzo K.A., Gibler D.M., Reid R. (2016) Examining the Development of Judicial Independence. Political Research Quarterly, vol.69, no.3, pp.583–593.

Roach K. (2001) Constitutional and Common Law Dialogues between the Supreme Court and Canadian Legislatures. Canadian Bar Review, vol.80, no.1, pp.481–533.

Robinson N. (2009) Expanding Judiciaries: India and the Rise of the Good Governance Court. Washington University Global Studies Law Review, vol.8, no.1, pp.1–70.

Roux T. (2009) Principle and Pragmatism on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol.7, no.1, pp.106–138.

Schneiderman D. (2000) Investment Rules and the New Constitutionalism. Law and Social Inquiry, vol.25, no.3, pp.757–787.

Sengupta A. (2010) Inclusive Growth as Rights-Based Development. Journal of Asian Public Policy, vol.3, no.3, pp.215–222.

Shapiro D. (2007) Is the Welfare State Justified? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shapiro M. (1988) Who Guards the Guardians? Judicial Control of Administration, Athens: University of Georgia Press.

Stephenson M.C. (2003) «When the Devil Turns…»: The Political Foundations of Independent Judicial Review. Journal of Legal Studies, vol.32, no.1, pp.59–90.

Stulz R.M. (2010) Credit Default Swaps and the Credit Crisis. Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol.24, no.1, pp.73–92.

Tridimas G. (2010) Constitutional Judicial Review as Political Insurance. European Journal of Law and Economics, vol.29, no.1, pp.81–101.

Tushnet M. (2002) Law and Prudence in the Law of Justiciability: The Transformation and Disappearance of the Political Question Doctrine. North Carolina Law Review, vol.80, no.4, pp.1203–1235.

Twight C. (1992) Constitutional Renegotiation: Impediments to Consensual Revision. Constitutional Political Economy, vol.3, no.1, pp.89–112.

Versteeg M., Zackin E. (2016) Constitutions Unentrenched: Toward an Alternative Theory of Constitutional Design. American Political Science Review, vol.110, no.4, pp.657–674.

Volcansek M.L. (2010) Bargaining Constitutional Design in Italy: Judicial Review as Political Insurance. West European Politics, vol.33, no.2, pp.280–296.

Waldron J. (2009) Can There Be a Democratic Jurisprudence? Emory Law Journal, vol.58, no.3, pp.675–712.