Tom Ginsburg
Biography
Tom Ginsburg is Professor of Law at University of Chicago Law School. He focuses on comparative and international law from an interdisciplinary perspective. He holds BA, JD, and PhD degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning Judicial Review in New Democracies (2003) and The Endurance of National Constitutions (2009). He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, Kyushu University, Seoul National University, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Trento. He currently co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project, an effort funded by the National Science Foundation to gather and analyse the constitutions of all independent nation-states since 1789. Before entering law teaching, he served as a legal adviser at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, The Hague, Netherlands, and consulted with numerous international development agencies and foreign governments on legal and constitutional reform.
Abstract
The Future of National Constitutions in a Global World
This paper argues that future developments in national constitutions will be determined by the interaction between domestic and transnational actors. Current trends – including the integration of international human rights norms, constitutions’ increasingly lengthy and statutory nature, and the import of provisions from similarly situated nations – are likely to continue over the long-term. Constitutions are likely to serve less as embodiments of a nation’s common aspirations and highest norms than as deals between competing national and international groups. Rapid social and technological change will also contribute to the destabilization of constitutions, and amendment procedures may become more flexible in response to these pressures. Additionally, the frequency of expansive judicial interpretation may increase in order to harmonise constitutional law with new social realities generated by globalization. In general, constitutions and constitutional legal practice will be subject to more external influences than in the past.
