Constitutions in the Global Financial Crisis: A Comparative Analysis

This book is the first to address the multi-faceted influence of the global financial crisis on the national constitutions of the countries most affected. By tracing the impact of the crisis on formal and informal constitutional change, sovereignty issues, fundamental rights protection, regulatory reforms, jurisprudence, the augmentation of executive power, and changes in the party system it addresses all areas of the current constitutional law dialogue and aims to become a reference book with regard to the interaction between financial crises and constitutions. The book includes contributions from prominent experts on Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the USA providing a critical analysis of the effects of the financial crisis on the constitution. The volume's extensive comparative chapter pins down distinct constitutional reactions towards the financial crisis, building an explanatory theory that accounts for the different ways constitutions responded to the crisis. How and why constitutions formed their reactions in the face of the financial crisis unravels throughout the book.

Contents: Introduction: the global financial crisis and the constitution, Xenophon Contiades; Part I Constitutional Reactions in Comparative Perspective: How constitutions react to the financial crisis, Xenophon Contiades and Alkmene Fotiadou. Part II First Path: Adjustment: The constitution and the financial crisis in Ireland, David Gwynn Morgan; The constitutional consequences of the financial crisis in Italy, Tania Groppi, Irene Spigno and Nicola Vizioli; Financial crisis and the constitution in Latvia, Ringolds Balodis and Janis Pleps; The Spanish constitution in the turmoil of the global financial crisis, Agustin Ruiz Robledo; The constitution and the financial crisis in the UK: historical and contemporary lessons, John F. McEldowney. Part III Second Path: Submission: The impact of the financial crisis on the Greek constitution, Xenophon Contiades and Ioannis A. Tassopoulos; The sovereign debt crisis and the constitution's negative outlook: a Portuguese preliminary assessment, Jonatas E.M. Machado. Part IV Third Path: Breakdown: Breaking and making constitutional rules: the constitutional effects of the financial crisis in Hungary, Zoltan Szente; The impact of the financial crisis on Icelandic constitutional law: legislative reforms, judicial review and revision of the constitution, Bjorg Thorarensen. Part V Fourth Path: Stamina: The United States constitution and the great recession, Mark Tushnet; Index.