Book Review - Dawn Oliver and Carlo Fusaro (eds), How Constitutions Change: A Comparative Study, Oxford: Hart publishing, 2011, pp. 510.

Abstract

The question of how constitutions change lies at the core both of the practice of contemporary constitutional democracies and of the related theories. These democracies have abandoned the pretention of founding the polity on eternal and perfect constitutions, thus admitting different kinds of constitutional changes. On the other hand, constitutions are believed to prevail over the laws, not necessarily and not just on procedural or formal grounds, but because of the presumption that the laws, being the contingent product of a certain political majority, should not encroach constitutional principles and rules that are intended to endure through diverse generations, although not in perpetuity.