The Charter of the United Nations was signed in 1945 by 51 countries representing all continents, paving the way for the creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. The Statute of the International Court of Justice forms part of the Charter. The aim of the Charter is to save humanity from war; to reaffirm human rights and the dignity and worth of the human person; to proclaim the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small; and to promote the prosperity of all humankind. The Charter is the foundation of international peace and security.

The a oeconstitutionalizationa of international law is one of the most intensely debated issues in contemporary international legal doctrine. The term is used to describe a number of features which distinguish the present international legal order from a oeclassicala international law, in particular its shift from bilateralism to community interest, and from an inter-state system to a global legal order committed to the well-being of the individual person. The author of this book belongs to the leading participants of the constitutionalization debate. He argues that there indeed exists a constitutional law of the international community that is built on and around the Charter of the United Nations. In this book, he explains why the Charter has a constitutional quality and what legal consequences arise from that characterization.

Written by two of Canada s leading constitutional scholars, no other Canadian book provides such an accessible yet thorough and objective account of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The authors survey the manner in which Canadian courts have come to terms with a constitutionally entrenched bill of rights, focusing on the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada. The purpose is to explain the Charter, its interpretation by the courts, and its practical application. The text has been thoroughly updated to reflect Charter jurisprudence since publication of the third edition in 2005. Notable among those developments are significant changes to the way the Supreme Court has approached the interpretation of equality rights, constitutional remedies, and most recently the rights of the criminally accused.

In Governing with the Charter, James Kelly clearly demonstrates that our current democratic deficit is not the result of the Supreme Court’s judicial activism. On the contrary, an activist framers’ intent surrounds the Charter, and the Supreme Court has simply, and appropriately, responded to this new constitutional environment. While the Supreme Court is admittedly a political actor, it is not the sole interpreter of the Charter, as the court, the cabinet, and bureaucracy all respond to the document, which has ensured the proper functioning of constitutional supremacy in Canada. Kelly analyzes the parliamentary hearings on the Charter and also draws from interviews with public servants, senators, and members of parliament actively involved in appraising legislation to ensure that it is consistent with the Charter. He concludes that the principal institutional outcome of the Charter has been a marginalization of Parliament and that this is due to the Prime Minister’s decision on how to govern with the Charter.

When the United Nations Charter was adopted in 1945, states established a legal `paradigm' for regulating the recourse to armed force. In the years since then, however, significant developments have challenged the paradigm's validity, causing a `pardigmatic shift'. International Law and the Use of Force traces this shift and explores its implications for contemporary international law and practice.

A collection of essays by distinguished legal scholars that explores from legal, historical and theoretical perspectives how the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union has affected, and is likely to impact on the development of, contract law and commercial law within the European Union.