The Use of Foreign Precedents by Constitutional Judges: 1

“The collected data for each jurisdiction makes for engaging reading. It reveals details of the extent of visible (and sometimes implied) comparative activity that each of the courts displays in its jurisprudence. It also amounts to an assessment of the successes and shortcomings of the use of foreign precedent (in terms of the level of reciprocal influence of well-functioning constitutional systems) by judges that are more or less inhibited by their judicial culture to do so…The editors’ concluding chapter conveniently provides the reader with a comparative overview, both of the quantitative and qualitative results of the country reporters, and a tentative perspective on the future of comparative judicial practice in constitutional cases…The purpose and goals of the project are met by the book: we now have a clearer picture of how some of the most prominent constitutional courts deal (or desist from dealing) with comparable judgments in other countries.” –François Venter, International Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol. 12, no 1

“The editorial decisions behind the individual reports are explained in the introductory chapter and ensure that each report adopts the same format. Although this is repetitive, the clear advantage is that it makes it easy to compare the approaches taken by different courts. This also highlights the hero of the volume: the empirical data within each report…The volume also provides valuable evidence on other common assumptions about judicial comparativism…The volume nevertheless represents a refreshing approach to complex questions raised in debates about constitutional borrowing, transjudicial communication, or the migration of constitutional ideas. As the editors point out, studies that catalogue the different approaches adopted by constitutional or supreme courts in their use of foreign law remain relatively rare. For this reason, The Use of Foreign Precedents by Constitutional Judges will be essential reading for scholars seeking to refresh the debates about using foreign law.” –Hélène Tyrrell, Public Law

“The work by Groppi and Ponthoreau is the result of a well-structured project and relies on sound methodology, which guarantees that all relevant issues are addressed and empirically verified…The individual chapters are also well written, thoroughly researched and easy to understand thanks to the use of various tables and graphs. (Translated from the original German.)” –András Jakab, Verfassung und Recht in Übersee 47/2014