Review by Choice Review
With its appendix, containing translations of the new Eastern European constitutions, and its exhaustively documented analysis of those constitutions, this is a valuable reference text for scholars of constitutional law. The timely book delivers much more than an analysis of the documents themselves, however. It also describes, in engaging detail, the often fractious process of constitution-making. A section on constitutional history in East and West leads to a discussion of the reform and revolutionary periods. After describing the politics of constitution making in each country, the author addresses the special problem of human rights protection--on paper and in actuality. This is an excellent feature, a concrete comparison with regard to a universally pressing problem. Also good is the author's inclusion of material about the US and other Western systems with which most readers will be familiar. The book concludes with a comparison of the "fabric" of the new constitutions--separation of powers, bicameralism versus unicameralism, presidential versus parliamentary systems, judicial review, and constitutional rights, freedoms, and duties. The author tries to identify general trends but concludes only that there are none. The book never quite transcends its reference-text style. Further, the author's plea for patience with the new democracies, his attempt to discover why the first societies to reform were the last to adopt new constitutions, and his claims about current dangers to democracy are not systematically developed into an argument. In all, though, the book provides advanced scholars with valuable comparative information. Graduate and research collections. C. J. Hager; Bryn Mawr College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
