Excerpt from The Constitutional Year Book, Vol. 33: For 1919 The Constitutional Year Book was first issued in 1885, with the special object of supplying a demand which had often been made by Conservative speakers and writers, and by politicians generally, for a cheap and handy reference-book of political information, containing facts and statistics of public interest, such as are often only obtainable after laborious search among Parliamentary Blue Books and other official documents. The success which attended its issue has justified the continuance of the publication in an enlarged and improved form. The Constitutional Year Book does not claim to compete in variety of general information with the numerous and valuable Year Books at present in circulation. While, however, its scope is chiefly political, there will be found in its pages much of the information usually contained in a Year Book, in addition to features which are believed to distinguish it from any existing work of the kind. Special attention is drawn to the complete information relating to Parliamentary Constituencies, Members, Candidates, and Elections from 1885 to the present time; to the Parliamentary Summary; to the statistics bearing on the several General Elections; and to the condensed Tables of Statistics on almost every subject of national importance, which have been carefully revised and brought down to the latest possible date. The Editor will be glad to receive any suggestions or corrections from correspondents. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book assesses the attempt to establish a modern system of democratic government in Thailand against the background of Thai politics and culture. The fact that since 1932, when it became a constitutional monarchy, Thailand has had 18 constitutions speaks of an unstable political system which has seen rapid and repeated fluctuations between military rule and elected government. The main focus of this study is a critical discussion of the institutional frameworks which have been established under recent constitutions. Individual chapters deal with: Thai history and context, including the role of the monarchy and the military, and of constitutional drafting processes; parliament and elections; the executive branch of government, including the role of ministers, the civil service, of a contracting state and of anti-corruption initiatives; the structure and challenges of local government, including discussion of the southern insurgency; the Constitutional Court and constitutional enforcement; the constitutional role of administrative law and of the administrative courts; the constitutional protection of human rights, with freedom of speech as a particular case study.

The centrepiece of this work is the French Constitution of 1958, portrayed by the author as an innovative hybrid construct whose arrival brought the constitutional stability that had eluded France for centuries. But the creation of the 1958 Constitution was not an isolated act; it represents part of an evolutionary process which continues to this day. Even though it is codified, the constitution of the Fifth Republic has evolved so markedly that some commentators have dubbed the present institutional balance the 'Sixth Republic'. It is this dynamic of the constitution which this book seeks to explain. At the same time the book shows how the French constitution has not developed in isolation, but reflects to some extent the global movement of ideas, ideas which sometimes challenge the very foundations of the 1958 Constitution.

This new book examines constitutional debate and development in one of the most dynamic and rapidly changing societies in Asia, and will be of use to scholars and students of comparative law, comparative constitutional law and Asian law, and practitioners interested in Asia or in Vietnam. The book discusses and analyses the historical development, principles, doctrines and debates which comprise and shape Vietnamese constitutional law today, during a time of reform and debate. The chapters are written in sufficient detail for anyone coming to the subject for the first time to develop a clear and informed view of how the constitution is arranged, how it works, and the main points of debate on it in Vietnamese society. It is written in an accessible style, with an emphasis on clarity and concision. The book discusses and analyses the origins of Vietnamese constitutional thought; the first (1946) Constitution of independent Vietnam; Constitutional dialogue and debate in the late 1940s and 1950s, including the work of dissidents in the 1950s; the 1959 Vietnamese Constitution; constitutional dialogue and debate in the 1960s and 1970s; the 1980 Constitution; the rise of doi moi (renovation) and debates over constitutionalism in the 1980s; the 1992 Constitution, including the role of legislative, executive and judicial sectors, constitutional power and enforcement, constitutional rights and obligations, and other issues; constitutional dialogue and debate in the 1990s; the constitutional debate and revision process of 2001 and the current Vietnamese Constitution the rise of debate over judicial independence and constitutional enforcement and review in Vietnam; comparison to constitutional developments and debates in China; constitutions and constitutional issue in the former South Vietnam; the links and tensions between state and party constitutions; and concluding analysis of 60 years of the development of Vietnam's Constitution and constitutionalism.

“A powerful challenge to the prevailing constitutional orthodoxy of the right and the left . . . A deeply troubling and absolutely vital book” (Mark Joseph Stern, Slate). In this provocative book, Mary Anne Franks examines the thin line between constitutional fidelity and constitutional fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution reveals how deep fundamentalist strains in both conservative and liberal American thought keep the Constitution in the service of white male supremacy. Franks demonstrates how constitutional fundamentalists read the Constitution selectively and self-servingly, thus undermining the integrity of the document as a whole. She goes on to argue that economic and civil libertarianism have merged to produce a deregulatory, “free-market” approach to constitutional rights that achieves fullest expression in the idealization of the Internet. The fetishization of the first and second amendments has blurred the boundaries between conduct and speech and between veneration and violence. But the Constitution itself contains the antidote to fundamentalism. The Cult of the Constitution lays bare the dark, antidemocratic consequences of constitutional fundamentalism and urges readers to take the Constitution seriously, not selectively.

This book provides an overview of Mexico's political evolution since it became independent from Spain in 1821, and its current constitutional arrangements, principles and structures. The aim is to explain this evolution as the result of struggles between the interests and ideologies of different groups within Mexican society, each with a different political vision of how the State should be organised. Chapter 1 reviews Mexico's constitutional trajectory, and explains why democracy, republicanism, federalism, separation of state and church, protection of fundamental rights and the Nation's ownership of mineral resources first became constitutional principles. Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 deal respectively with democracy and the electoral system, and the legislative, executive and judicial branches of federal government. Chapter 6 introduces the institutional structure of Mexico's federal system, while Chapter 7 discusses the rules, principles and institutions for the protection of human rights. Chapter 8 examines the constitutional regime of Mexico's economy. The conclusion explains how a series of factors has combined to produce a gap between the formal Constitution and what can be seen as the living Constitution; bridging that gap presents Mexican politics and society with one of its great contemporary challenges.