Constitutionalism under Stress

Essays in Honour of Wojciech Sadurski – edited by Uladzislau Belavusau and Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias

This volume brings together leading scholars in the field of constitutional theory, investigating the crucial dilemmas in dealing with the current decline of liberal democracies and populist challenges to the rule of law throughout Europe.

Released in September 2020 by Oxford University Press, it is a timely and effective reference tool on matters of constitutional capture and liberal democracy.

Constitutionalism under Stress reflects on comparative constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe through the lens of Wojciech Sadurski, whose writings have anticipated and scrutinised the current decline of liberal democracies and populist challenges to the rule of law in the region.

Wojciech’s work has chronicled the transition from concern for the most basic of human rights under authoritarian rule to the challenges of democratic governance. The compelling rights discourse of an earlier period gave way to claims of abuse of majoritarian prerogatives as the hopes of liberal democracy encountered the power of illiberalism.

The essays in this volume, by distinguished constitutional scholars, colleagues and former students from around the world, explore the challenges to liberal democracy, in light of the current strains upon constitutionalism and the rule of law in the region, and what responses are available, in this time of constitutional capture and illiberal democracy.