Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1971

Publication Information

20 Jahrbuch des Öffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart 111 (1971).

Abstract

This is a comparative study of the constitutional courts of Italy and West Germany. These institutions, established in the 1950's, have settled hundreds of constitutional disputes. And their caseloads continue to rise in volume. The time seems ripe, therefore, briefly to review the work of these tribunals and to relate this work to the condition of constitutional democracy in the two polities. It should be remarked that this is not fundamentally a study in constitutional jurisprudence. The main purpose of this article is to see how judicial review has actually operated, what its effects have been, and what its future is likely to be in the two countries. In short, this is a political analysis which aims toward an assessment of the overall performance of two constitutional courts; yet it represents an analysis that is surely most relevant to the future of constitutional government in Italy and West Germany.

Comments

Donald P. Kommers (1932–2018) was a political scientist and legal scholar well known for his writings on German law and politics and his pioneering work in the field of comparative constitutional studies. He joined the University of Notre Dame's political science faculty in 1963. In 1975, he joined the law faculty in a concurrent position. In 1991, Kommers received the Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Chair of Political Science. He taught a wide variety of courses on American and comparative politics until turning most of his attention to the constitutional systems of both Germany and the United States. At the University of Notre Dame, he served as the director of the Law School’s Center for Civil and International Human Rights from 1976 to 1981 and as the editor of The Review of Politics from 1981 to 1992. Upon retirement, he continued to teach in the undergraduate constitutional studies program and offered an advanced seminar in comparative constitutional law at Notre Dame Law School.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.