Ian Randle Publishers
Caribbean Constitutional Reform
Simeon C.R. McIntosh
Politics & Social Sciences
Caribbean Constitutional Reform
US$ 9.99
The publisher has enabled DRM protection, which means that you need to use the BookFusion iOS, Android or Web app to read this eBook. This eBook cannot be used outside of the BookFusion platform.
Description
Contents
Reviews

This is the first book to be written on Caribbean constitutional theory. In the continuing discourse and emergent project of constitutional reform in the Commonwealth Caribbean, it examines the origins of the Independence Constitutions across the Commonwealth Caribbean and traces the region’s constitutional development from the time of the emancipation of slavery through to independence. At its core is the premise that constitutional reform must necessarily result in a redefining of West Indian political identity.

The theme throughout the book is the fact that the written constitutions of the Caribbean all have their origin in the British Parliament and the unwritten English constitution that has evolved over centuries. The existing constitutions were all the result of the collaborative efforts of the region’s political elite and British officials, with no participation from the West Indian people. The Crown is still claimed and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council remains the final appellate court. In the result, political independence has simply meant that the countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean are independent subjects of the Crown rather than colonial subjects.

The book begins with the process of ‘lawful devolution of sovereignty’ and the origins of the sovereign states of the Commonwealth Caribbean and proceeds to address the theoretical issues of founding and amendability as well as such pressing issues about the relationship between a prime minister and a head of state in a parliamentary republic and electoral reform. An entire chapter is devoted to the Bill of Rights and addresses the fundamental rights and freedoms preserved in Caribbean Bills of Rights as well as the controversial and paradoxical Savings Clauses, which in and of themselves might justify the rewriting of the fundamental rights provisions of Commonwealth Caribbean Constitutions.

Caribbean Constitutional Reform offers a philosophical justification for the establishment of a Caribbean Supreme Court based on the idea of sovereignty and the right of a people to define themselves. This work makes the first definitive step to addressing these critical issues in Caribbean constitutional theory and sets the stage for a ‘new constitutional discourse’ shaped by a Caribbean court of final appeal.

Language
English
ISBN
978-976-8167-83-5
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Constitutional Reform and Caribbean Political Identity
The Question of Origin
Towards a Constitutional Theory of Founding and Amendability
Constitutional Self-binding
Commonwealth Caribbean Constitutions
The Amending Power
Patriating the West Indian Independence Constitution
Of West Indian Monarchies and Constitutional Absurdities
Of Monarchies and Constitutional Republics
Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government
Republicanism, Constitutionalism and Democracy
The Modern British State: A Monarchical Republic
Of Constitutional Monarchies and Parliamentary Republics
American Republicanism
American Republican Constitutionalism
Commonwealth Caribbean Republican Constitutionalism
Parliamentary or Presidential Republics?
Presidentialism
Parliamentarism
Constitutional Choice
The President and Head of State
The Legislature – Bicameral or Unicameral?
Electoral Reform: ‘First-Past-the-Post’ or Proportional Representation?
The Bill of Rights
Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
Writing and Reading the Texts
Fundamental Rights and the Savings Clause
The Special Savings Clause
Reading Text and Polity: The Casefor a Caribbean Supreme Court
The Judicial Opinion in the Republic of Law and Letters
Marbury v. Madison
The Cases
Reading Precedent
The Neville Lewis Case
The CCJ and the Future of Capital Punishment in the Commonwealth Caribbean
Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Index
The book hasn't received reviews yet.