Defence of Constitutionality – Or the Czech Question in Post–National Europe (Václav Havel) - Softcover

Priban, Jiri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8024634236 ISBN 13: 9788024634234

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2018

Synopsis

More than a century after the publication of Czech politician Tomascaron; Garrigue Masaryk's study The Czech Question, Czech politics instead of the nation's historical struggle for survival and independence has become a pragmatic question of democratic constitutionalism and civility. Originally published in major Czech newspapers, these essays on contemporary European politics demonstrate that this new understanding involves both technical questions of power making and critical questions of its meaning. Democracy, Priban shows, is the process of permanent self-correction. It possesses both the capacity to respond to unexpected problems and crises and intrinsic tensions between principled arguments and everyday administrative processes. Defending constitutionalism, therefore, draws on principles of civil rights and freedoms, limited government, and representative democracy, the validity and persuasive force of which are at stake not only in the Czech Republic, but also in the post-national European Union and our global society at large.

About this title

About the Author

Jiri Priban is professor of law at Cardiff University, United Kingdom. He is the author of numerous books in Czech and English, including, most recently, Sovereignty in Post-Sovereign Society: A Systems Theory of European Constitutionalism. Stuart Hoskins is a translator of Czech and Slovak into English.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8024634236
• ISBN 13: 9788024634234
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280