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    Sovereignty, Civic Participation and Constitutional Law

    Proposal review

    The People versus the Nation in Belgium

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    Contributor(s)
    Deseure, Brecht (editor)
    Geenens, Raf (editor)
    Sottiaux, Stefan (editor)
    Language
    English
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    "This book brings recent insights about sovereignty and citizen participation in the Belgian Constitution to scholars in the fields of public law, history, and political theory. Throughout the Western world, there are increasing calls for greater citizen participation. Referendums, citizen councils, and other forms of direct democracy are considered necessary antidotes to a growing hostility towards traditional party politics. This book focuses on the Belgian debate, where the introduction of participatory politics has stalled because of an ambiguity in the Constitution. Scholars and judges generally claim that the Belgian Constitution gives ultimate power to the Nation, which can only speak through representation in parliament. In light of this, direct democracy would be an unconstitutional power grab by the current generation of citizens. This book critically investigates this received interpretation of the Constitution and, by reaching back to the debates among Belgium's 1831 founding fathers, concludes that it is untenable. The spirit, if not the text, of the Belgian Constitution allows for more popular participation than present-day jurisprudence admits. Combining new insights from law, history, and political science, this book is a showcase for continental constitutional theory. The questions it asks reverberate far beyond Belgium. The book provides a rare source of information on Belgium's 1831 Constitution, which was in its time seen as modern constitutionalism’s greatest triumph which became a model for countless other constitutions. "
    URI
    https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47018
    Keywords
    law
    ISBN
    9780367483593, 9780367712280, 9781003039525
    Publisher
    Taylor & Francis
    Publisher website
    https://taylorandfrancis.com/
    Publication date and place
    2021
    Imprint
    Routledge
    Classification
    Jurisprudence and general issues
    Law: Human rights and civil liberties
    Constitutional and administrative law: general
    Legal history
    Laws of specific jurisdictions and specific areas of law
    Social and political philosophy
    Constitution: government and the state
    Chapters in this book
    • Chapter 3 Benjamin Constant and the limits of popular sovereignty
    • Chapter 4 Abbé Sieyès
    • Chapter 11 Pulling the curtain on the national sovereignty myth:
    • Chapter 15 Sovereignty without sovereignty
    Rights
    • Imported or submitted locally

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    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

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