Book Review: The Foundations and Traditions of Constitutional Amendment (Ed. Richard Albert, Xenophon Contiades & Alkmene Fotaidou)

Abstract

Foundations and Traditions of Constitutional Amendment is undoubtedly a thought-provoking book edited by Richard Albert, Xenophon Contiades and Alkmene Fotaidou. The book is divided into two parts: Part I: The Foundations of Constitutional Amendment; Part II: The Traditions of Constitutional Amendment. The first part develops the underpinning elements of constitutionalism. The second part explores the traditions of constitutional amendment, by means of several comparative studies.

Constitutional amendment scholarship should be equally devoted to formal and informal amendment, to their interaction, “and also to the costs and consequences of privileging one over the other” (Richard Albert).

As the brilliant Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa once wrote: “every gesture is a revolutionary act”. Clearly, at the end of the book one is left with the certainty that its open-minded and enriching ideas will have a significant, positive impact in comparative legal scholarship. For the present reviewer, it has been an enjoyable learning experience which reveals with admirable clarity and accuracy the challenges of constitutional amendment as a distinct field of study in public law.

Keywords: constitutional amendment; normative force of the constitution; possibilities and limitations of constitutional design; constitutionalism and democracy