Introduction to Constitutional Law: Principles and Applications

Author: Zhang Qianfan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: As a legal textbook, this book shares the characteristics of a general law textbook. Since it treats the constitution strictly as a branch of law, it has no fundamental difference in style from civil law, criminal law, or administrative law. The book combines constitutional principles with case studies to introduce and compare the constitutional systems of China and other countries. In terms of content, the book is divided into three parts, totaling eight chapters. The first part is an introduction, which includes basic concepts of constitutional law, the formation, development, and ideological origins of the constitution, as well as three chapters on constitutional review mechanisms. The inclusion of the review mechanism in the introduction is because the constitutional experiences of developed countries generally demonstrate that constitutional review is a necessary guarantee of constitutional effectiveness. Without some form of constitutional review, the constitution loses practical effect, and constitutional law becomes meaningless empty theory. Therefore, like the previous two chapters, this part of the content is fundamental and universal. The second and third parts are about substantive theories of constitutional law. The second part introduces state institutions, including three chapters on the division of state power structures, government organizational structures, and the methods of government formation. The third part discusses citizens' rights, including two chapters on the basic concepts of rights and constitutional protection. The reason for placing citizens' rights after state institutions is partly due to the progressive nature of the content, as the original meaning of "constitution" (constitution) after all refers to the organization of the government; partly because the reasonable allocation of state power is a prerequisite for protecting citizens' rights—the constitutional protection we refer to is, in fact, the protection of citizens' rights implemented by relevant government departments based on the constitution. In form, the book combines theoretical narration with actual cases and intersperses "annotations" (explanations of concepts or theories), "discussions" (discussions of controversial issues), "cases" (famous or typical judgments from various countries), "updates" (new developments in constitutionalism at home and abroad), and "thoughts" (questions for readers) appropriately. It needs to be emphasized that this book focuses on persuasive reasoning rather than "correct answers"; in fact, most valuable legal issues do not have correct answers. Can the government restrict your freedom of speech based on social impact? Can officials file counterclaims against citizens who infringe on their reputation? Should the Supreme Court the power to review capital punishment? (See Chapter 7 of this book) Does the constitution require just compensation when private property is expropriated? How to measure whether compensation is "just"? The controversy over these issues itself shows that finding a correct answer is difficult, if not impossible. If you are interested in constitutional law, the best you can do is to start from your understanding of the public interest and provide strong arguments for a particular answer. Of course, others may have different opinions. This is why debate is so important in law and why we need a court to judge and resolve legal disputes, including constitutional ones. For ease of reading, this book uses footnotes to indicate generally longer case names, while general literature is marked with "()" annotations to show the author, year, and page number, and a bibliography is provided at the end of the book. If the original text of a case has been modified, it is uniformly marked with "[]". Unless otherwise specified, the "Constitution" in the United States refers to its federal constitution, the "Supreme Court" refers to the federal Supreme Court, and Germany's "Constitutional Court" generally refers to the Federal Constitutional Court.