A collection of essays from leading constitutional lawyers and theorists, examining the philosophical foundations of constitutional law and the issues that arise from the fundamental philosophical issues raised by the idea of a constitution.

• Introduction


• Part I: What is a Constitution?


• 1: David Dyzenhaus: The Idea of a Constitution: A Plea for Staatsrechtslehre


• 2: Mark Walters: The Unwritten Constitution as a Legal Concept


• 3: Aharon Barak: On Constitutional Implications and Constitutional Structure


• 4: Sanford Levinson: Reflections on What Constitutes 'a Constitution': The Importance of 'Constitutions of Settlement' and the Potential Irrelevance of Herculean Lawyering


• 5: Rosalind Dixon and Adrienne Stone: Constitutional Amendment and Political Constitutionalism: A Philosophical and Comparative Reflection


• Part II: Constitutional Authority


• 6: Evan Fox-Decent: Constitutional Legitimacy Unbound


• 7: Hans Lindahl: Constituent Power and the Constitution


• 8: Richard Stacey: Popular Sovereignty and Revolutionary Constitution- Making


• 9: Thomas Poole: Constitutional Reason of State


• Part III: Constitutional Rights and their Limitations


• 10: Trevor Allan: The Rule of Law


• 11: Aileen Kavanagh: The Constitutional Separation of Powers


• 12: Jack M. Balkin: The Framework Model and Constitutional Interpretation


• 13: Cristina Lafont: Philosophical Foundations of Judicial Review


• Part IV: Constitutional Rights and their Limitation


• 14: Sophia Moreau: Equality Rights and Stereotypes


• 15: Malcolm Thorburn: Proportionality

David Dyzenhaus is a professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He holds the Alfred Abel Chair of Law and was appointed in 2015 to the rank of University Professor.
Malcolm Thorburn is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. Until 2012, he held the Canada Research Chair in Crime, Security and Constitutionalism at Queen's University. He has been a visiting fellow at the Australian National University (2008); Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich (2011); the French National Centre for Criminology (CESDIP), Paris (2011); and Magdalen College, Oxford (2011-12). He is an associate editor of the New Criminal Law Review and a member of the editorial boards of Law and Philosophy and Criminal Law and Philosophy.