Constitutional Review in Europe and in the United States: Influences, Paradoxes, and Convergence

Abstract

In this paper, prepared as chapter for a book on comparisons of the American and European approaches to democracy, I provide an account of different US and continental-European constitutional trajectories focusing on the contrasts, similarities and paradoxes which emerge when reflecting upon the American and the European models of constitutional review. I begin by outlining the main ways in which American constitutionalism affected the evolution of European approaches to the role of constitutions in the legal system; I will then provide a highly stylized account of two contrasting models of constitutional review: he European “continental” model and the US model; I also note some striking paradoxes which emerge when reflecting upon these models, and also attempt to provide some explanations (if not “solutions”) to these paradoxes. Finally, I will show some important ways in which the two models converge.

Keywords: Comparative Constitutional Law, Constitutional Courts, Judicial Review, Bills of Rights

JEL Classification: K10, K30