Legal Theory in the Crucible of Constitutional Justice: A Study of Judges and Political Morality in Canada, Ireland and Italy

A discussion of the fundamental laws of three liberal democratic states - Canada, Ireland and Italy - and the role played by the highest judicial authorities of those states in interpreting the law. The interpretations given are significant for the states, and frequently involve unexpected interpretations of the law. The author addresses the interrelation between constitutional interpretation and political morality, referring both to the work of constitutional judges and to the work of theoretical writers. He argues that constitutional judges, in the task of constitutional interpretation, try to reconstruct the legal materials before them, to provide the most acceptable reconstruction of the legal system from the viewpoint of political morality. In doing this they rely on (legalized) criteria of political morality to judge the correctness of the interpretation. Their reconstruction is a contribution to the public debate on the legitimacy of the legal order.