Specifying Constitutional Rights
Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 27, p. 231, 2010
18 Pages Posted: 8 Apr 2011
Date Written: June 5, 2010
Abstract
This paper reviews Grégoire C. N. Webber's book, The Negotiable Constitution: On the Limitation of Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2009), defending a specificationist account of constitutional rights, which holds that the limitation clauses common to most constitutions and charters largely define the very content of the rights that they limit. Having defended specificationism about rights generally in previous work, which Webber relies upon in developing his own view, I pay special attention to the case for applying that account to constitutional rights. I conclude that while a specified account of constitutional rights faces unique challenges, it can overcome them and offers a promising and novel re-conceptualization of the nature of constitutional rights.
Keywords: Constitutional Law, Constitutional Rights, Rights, Specificationism
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