This book presents a new perspective on the debate around legitimacy, politics and constitutional law in Supreme Courts.
Moving away from the troubling perception that Supreme Courts are trampling on the wrong side of the law/politics divide, it accepts and defends the critical claim that constitutional law is intrinsically and inescapably politics: in style, substance and outcome.
It explains what is involved in that claim and recommends a more nuanced and compelling account than it is caricatured to be. The book proceeds to demonstrate how the legal and judicial process can proceed if the law-is-politics critique is taken seriously.
Insisting that it cannot be business as usual, the author offers a series of constructive proposals about how constitutional law and judicial decision-making can continue in anything like their present format and style.
Recognising that a more radical approach could be taken to the way in which democracy might re-organise, the book runs with the idea that it is possible to incorporate and accommodate the law-is-politics argument within a governmental system of constitutional democracy that resembles closely what now occurs. In that sense, the book is both critical and constructive as well as principled and pragmatic.
By:
Allan C Hutchinson (Osgoode Hall Law School Canada)
Imprint: Hart Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781509985326
ISBN 10: 1509985328
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 26 June 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Looking for Legitimacy: An Introduction 2. Finding Legitimacy: Democracy, Politics and Courts 3. By Way of Apology: Constitutional Law and Theory 4. In Search of Principles: From Origins to Equilibrium 5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Constitutional Reckoning 6. The Politics of Law: A Clearer and Deeper Dive 7. Rethinking Legitimacy: A Jurisprudential View 8. Rethinking Legitimacy: A Judicial View 9. Rethinking Legitimacy: A Political View 10. Rethinking Legitimacy: A Democratic View 11. The Justices’ New Clothes: A Cautionary Tale
Allan C Hutchinson is Distinguished Research Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Canada.
