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Public Reason and Courts

Public Reason and Courts

Public Reason and Courts

Silje A. Langvatn, University of Bergen and University of Oslo
Mattias Kumm, New York University and WZB Berlin
Wojciech Sadurski, University of Sydney and University of Warsaw
June 2020
Available
Hardback
9781108487351
$138.00
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Hardback
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eBook

    Public Reason and Courts is an interdisciplinary study of public reason and courts with contributions from leading scholars in legal theory, political philosophy and political science. The book's chapters demonstrate the breadth of ways in which public reason and public justification is currently seen as relevant for adjudicative reasoning and review practices, and includes critical assessments of different ways that the idea of public reason has been applied to courts. It shows that public reason is not just an abstract theoretical concept used by political philosophers, but an idea that spurs new perspectives and normative frameworks also for legal scholars and judges. In particular, the book demonstrates the potential, and the limitations, of the idea of public reason as a source of legitimacy for courts, in a context where many courts face political backlashes and crisis of trust.

    • An interdisciplinary study of public reason and courts with contributions from legal theory, political philosophy and political science
    • Showing how theories of public reason can inform, and sometimes explain, the jurisprudence of constitutional and international courts
    • A respected line-up of scholars from different legal and constitutional traditions help readers get acquainted with the most recent advances in legal and constitutional scholarship

    Product details

    June 2020
    Hardback
    9781108487351
    300 pages
    25 × 157 × 25 mm
    0.7kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Preface Silje A. Langvatn, Wojciech Sadurski and Mattias Kumm
    • 1. Taking Public Reason to Court: Understanding References to Public Reason in Discussions about Courts and Adjudication Silje Aambø Langvatn
    • Part I. Public Reason in Constitutional Courts:
    • 2. Must Laws Be Motivated by Public Reason? Micah Schwartzman
    • 3. The Importance of Constitutional Public Reason Ronald C. Den Otter
    • 4. The Question of Constitutional Fidelity: Rawls on the Reason of Constitutional Courts Frank I. Michelman
    • 5. The Challenges of Islamic Law Adjudication in Public Reason Mohammad H. Fadel
    • 6. “We Hold these Truths to be Self-Evident”: Constitutionalism, Public Reason and Legitimate Authority Mattias Kumm
    • 7. A Kantian System of Constitutional Justice: Rights, Trusteeship and Balancing Alec Stone Sweet and Eric Palmer
    • 8. Laws, Norms, and Public Justification: The Limits of Law as an Instrument of Reform Jacob Barrett and Gerald F. Gaus
    • Part II. Public Reason in International Courts and Tribunals:
    • 9. European Court of Human Rights in Pursuit of Public Reason? A Study of Lost Opportunities Wojciech Sadurski
    • 10. The Right to Justification in the Context of Proportionality: A Plea for Determinacy and Stability Alain Zysset
    • 11. “Going Public:” Reasoning and Justification at the “World Trade Court” Sivan Agon Shlomo
    • Part III. Critical Perspective on Public Reason in Courts:
    • 12. Constitutional Interpretation and Public Reason: Seductive Disanalogies Christopher F. Zurn.
      Contributors
    • Silje A. Langvatn, Wojciech Sadurski, Mattias Kumm, Micah Schwartzman, Ronald C. Den Otter, Frank I. Michelman, Mohammad H. Fadel, Alec Stone Sweet, Eric Palmer, Jacob Barrett, Gerald F. Gaus, Alain Zysset, Sivan Agon Shlomo, Christopher F. Zurn

    • Editors
    • Silje A. Langvatn , University of Bergen and University of Oslo

      Silje A. Langvatn is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Philosophy at The University of Bergen, Norway. She has previously held positions as Postdoctoral Fellow at PluriCourts, University of Oslo, Law & Philosophy Fellow at Yale Law School (2016), and Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Harvard Government Department (2009).

    • Mattias Kumm , New York University and WZB Berlin

      Mattias Kumm is Inge Rennert Professor of Law, NYU School of Law and Research Professor for Global Public Law at WZB Social Science Research Center, Berlin. He works on basic issues of constitutional, European and international law as well as the philosophy of law. Beyond his current affiliations Kumm held professorial appointments among others at Harvard, Yale and the EUI. He is a founding Editor of Global Constitutionalism (CUP) and Jus Cogens (Springer).

    • Wojciech Sadurski , University of Sydney and University of Warsaw

      Wojciech Sadurski has previously held a professorship at the European University Institute, Florence, where he served as head of department of law in (2003-6). He taught at New York University School of Law, Yale Law School, Fordham Law School in New York and was Chair of the Academic Advisory Board of the Community of Democracies. He has written extensively on the philosophy of law, political philosophy, and comparative constitutional law.