András Sajó - Böcker

Prevention of an erosion of the rule of law is of utmost importance for democracy, because once autocratization begins, only one in five democracies manage to avert breakdown. This book offers a means of protecting the rule of law and counteracting its misuse for illiberal purpose. It analyses inherent anomalies that occur in so-called consolidated democracies, and the responses where the rule of law is seriously undermined. Only by identifying legal imperfections and addressing them, can crises of liberal democracies be avoided. András Sajó provides new theoretical and practical perspectives on legal positivism and legal interpretation. Making the rule of law more robust and its restoration successful requires an innovative, more militant approach to the rule of law. This book proves that unorthodox legal solutions can satisfy rule of law expectations. Otherwise, legality becomes a suicide pact for democracy. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Prevention of an erosion of the rule of law is of utmost importance for democracy, because once autocratization begins, only one in five democracies manage to avert breakdown. This book offers a means of protecting the rule of law and counteracting its misuse for illiberal purpose. It analyses inherent anomalies that occur in so-called consolidated democracies, and the responses where the rule of law is seriously undermined. Only by identifying legal imperfections and addressing them, can crises of liberal democracies be avoided. András Sajó provides new theoretical and practical perspectives on legal positivism and legal interpretation. Making the rule of law more robust and its restoration successful requires an innovative, more militant approach to the rule of law. This book proves that unorthodox legal solutions can satisfy rule of law expectations. Otherwise, legality becomes a suicide pact for democracy. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

There is widespread agreement that democracy today faces unprecedented challenges. Populism has pushed governments in new and surprising constitutional directions. Analysing the constitutional system of illiberal democracies (from Venezuela to Poland) and illiberal phenomena in 'mature democracies' that are justified in the name of 'the will of the people', this book explains that this drift to mild despotism is not authoritarianism, but an abuse of constitutionalism. Illiberal governments claim that they are as democratic and constitutional as any other. They also claim that they are more popular and therefore more genuine because their rule is based on conservative, plebeian and 'patriotic' constitutional and rule of law values rather than the values liberals espouse. However, this book shows that these claims are deeply deceptive - an abuse of constitutionalism and the rule of law, not a different conception of these ideas.