Analyzing nineteen cases, this title offers practical perspective on the implications of constitution-making procedure, and explores emerging international legal norms.

This book examines the process of dismantling the democratic institutions and protections in Venezuela under the Hugo Chávez regime. The actions of the Chávez government have influenced similar processes and undemocratic manoeuvrings in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Honduras. Since the election of Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela in 1998, a sinister form of nationalistic authoritarianism has arisen at the expense of long-established democratic standards. During the past decade, the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution has been systematically attacked by all branches of the Chávez government, particularly by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which has legitimized the Chávez-ordered constitutional violations. The Chávez regime has purposely defrauded the Constitution and severely restricted representative government, all in the name of a supposedly participatory democracy controlled by a popularly supported central government. This volume illustrates how an authoritarian, nondemocratic government has been established in Venezuela.

Sources of Constitutional Law contains a selection of constitutions and fundamental legislative instruments from five Western democracies: the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In addition, the book includes the text of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The instruments reproduced in the book are rendered either in the original English, in the official English version, or in new translations under critical editorship. Sources of Constitutional Law will permit students of constitutional law to understand the peculiarities and similarities of different Western constitutions in direct comparison. With its selection of constitutions and legislative instruments, the book is the ideal companion to Intersentia's textbook Constitutions Compared: An Introduction to Comparative Constitutional Law (Third Edition). [Subject: Constitutional Law, Comparative Law, Human Rights Law]