CONSTITUTIONAL LAW I: GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Description of Course

Constitution, types of constitution, constitutionalism, constitution-making, constitutional amendment,  judicial review of laws, state, elements of state (nation, territory and sovereignty), theories on the origins of state, monarchy, republic, unitary state, confederation, federation, parliamentary and presidential systems of government, theory of democracy, types of democracy (direct, semi-direct and representative democracy), elections (right of suffrage and electoral systems), human rights.

Course Plan

1. Constitution and Constitutionalism

- Types of constitution: flexible and rigid constitutions; written and unwritten constitutions.

- Constitutionalism: Meaning and historical developments

2. Constituent Power and Amending Power (Constitution-Making and Constitutional Amendment )

- Constituent power (Consitution-making): procedures of constitution-making

- Amending power:  Procedures of constitutional amendment (proposition, adoption and approbation of constitutional laws).

3. Judicial Review of Laws: Constitutional courts

- Structure, composition of constitutional courts (A comparative analyses: The U.S.A, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc).

- Models of review: centralized and decentralized types of judicial review

- Types of review: a priori and a posteriori types of review

- Ways of review: abstract and concrete review of laws, and constitutional complaint

4. State

- Concept of state

- Elements of state: Nation, territory and sovereignty

- Major theories on the origins of state: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Oppenheimer, etc.

 5. Types of State I: Monarchy-Republic

- Monarchy: Definition and types (absolute – limited) (elected – hereditary).

- Republic: Definition and types

6. Types of State II: Unitary State, Union of States, Confederation and Federation

- Unitary state

-Regional state

- Union of States: Personal union and real union

- Confederation

- Federation

7. Federalism

- Definition and its differences from confederation and unitary state

- Characteristics of federalism

- Examples: USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, etc.

8. Governmental Systems (General)

- Theory of the separation of powers (Montesquieu)

- Classification of governmental systems.

  - Systems of the union of powers: Absolute monarchy, dictatorship (totalitarian and authoritarian dictatorship) and assembly government (conventional system)

  - Systems of the separation of powers: parliamentary and presidential systems

9. Parliamentary System of Government 

- Definition

- Characteristics

- Evaluation of parliamentary system: advantages and disadvantages

- ‘Rationalized parliamentarism’

10. Presidential System of Government 

- Definition

- Characteristics

- Evaluation of presidential system: advantages and disadvantages

- ‘Semi-presidentialism’

11. Theory of Democracy

- Normative theory

- Empiric theory

12. Types of Democracy 

- Direct democracy (Direct government)

- Semi-direct democracy (Semi-direct government)

- Representative democracy (Representative government)

13. Elections

- Right of suffrage

- Principles of suffrage: universal suffrage, equal suffrage, free suffrage, secret suffrage, direct suffrage, public counting of the votes

- Electoral systems: majority system, proportional representation and mixed systems

14. Human Rights

- Notions: Liberty, freedom, rights, civil rights, public liberties, fundamental freedoms, basic rights, human rights, etc.

- Concepts: Natural law v. positivism

- Classification of human rights

- Restriction of human rights

- Protection of human rights (internal ant external protections of human rights, especially the system of the “Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Rights” and “European Court of Human Rights”

Editor: Kemal Gözler

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