The Influence of German State-Theory on the Design of the Australian Constitution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9929126 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicholas Aroney (0000-0001-8324-9909, Korean Constitutional Law Association, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 669-699 |
| Publication date | 2010-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International and Comparative Law Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-5893 • E-ISSN: 1471-6895 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020589310000266 |
| OpenAlex | W2125835098 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
This article draws attention to an important but neglected story about the dissemination of German and Swiss state-theories among English-speaking scholars in the second half of the 19 th century and the influence of these ideas on those who designed and drafted the Australian Constitution. In particular, the article focuses upon the theories of federalism developed by the Swiss-born scholar, Johann Caspar Bluntschli, and the Saxon-born Georg Jellinek, and explains their influence, via the British historian, Edward A Freeman, and the American political scientist, John W Burgess, upon the framers of the Australian Constitution. The story is important because it illustrates the way in which constitutional ideas can be transmitted from one social and political context into a very different one, undergoing significant, though often subtle, modifications and adaptations in the process. The story is also important because it sheds light on the way in which the framers of the Australian Constitution came to conceive of the kind of federal system that they wished to see created. The story seems to have been overlooked, however, not only due to a general neglect of the intellectual history of the Australian Constitution, but also due to the assumption that prevailing Australian political and legal ideas were of Anglo-American provenance. While this assumption generally holds true, a closer examination of the intellectual context of Australian federalism reveals a surprisingly significant German influence on the framers of the Australian Constitution
Constitution · Context (archaeology · Federalism · German · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Political Theory and Influence
Revisiting the Rights of Man
A Commonwealth of Commonwealths’
German Translations of the American Declaration of Independence
Theories of Federalism under the Holy Roman Empire
The Federal Alternative? A New View of Modern German History
The Constitution of the Holy Roman Empire After 1648
The Possibilities of Comparative Constitutional Law
The Question of Case Selection in Comparative Constitutional Law
The Westphalian Model, Sovereignty and Law in Fin-de-siècle German International Theory
| Highly cited | No |
|---|