CONTENTS:- Vol.1: An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 1. The meaning of a constitution. 2. Constitutional law. 3. Conventions distinguished from laws. 4. The rule of law. 5. Sources of law. 6. The royal prerogative in Britain. 7. The problem of legitimacy. 8. The development of English law. 9. A look on the constitution of India. 10. The House of Commons: functions and procedure.
Vol.2: British Constitutional Law: 1. British Parliament and the Courts. 2. The Legislative Sovereignty of British Parliament. 3. The prerogative powers of the Crown in Britain. 4. The crown and its subjects. 5. The police. 6. Separation of powers. 7. Rule of law. 8. The Legislative Supremacy of British Parliament. 9. The European Community and the European Union. 10. The structure of the United Kingdom and devolution. 11. Primary and secondary legislation. 12. EC Law. 13. Constitutional conventions and Judge-made Law in Britain.
Vol.3: Constitutional Law in The US: 1. The constitutional authority of the Federal Government. 2. The President. 3. Congress. 4. Federalism, and the separation of powers in America. 5. Text, history, and interpretation of the constitution of the United States. 6. The Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Vol.4: Constitutional Law in India: 1. The constitution and the fundamental rights. 2. Directive principles of state policy. 3. Indian constitution and the executive. 4. Indian constitution and the Legislature. 5. Relations between the Union and States. 6. Finance, property, contracts and suits. 7. Trade, commerce and intercourse within the territory of India. 8. Services under the Union and the States. 9. Tribunals. 10. Indian constitution on elections. 11. Special provisions relating to certain classes. 12. Official language. 13. Emergency provisions. 14. Miscellaneous. 15. The process of amendment of the constitution. 16. Temporary, transitional and special provisions. 17. Short title, commencement and repeals. Schedules: 1 to 9.
Vol.5: Constitutional Law in Commonwealth Countries: 1. The character of federalism. 2. The amendment of the Canadian constitution. 3. The amendment of the Australian constitution. 4. The amendment of the Swiss constitution. 5. Reflections on other countries. 6. Federalism and constitutional change.
DESCRIPTION
Constitutional law provides for us to act collectively by coordinating the interests of many individuals for example by voting processes or judicial orders. It also tries to protect individuals against abuses by those to whom power is entrusted, it being a sad feature of human nature that those who seek power may be unsuited to exercise it. The political system of which the constitution is merely a skeleton can of course be any thing that the dominant groups in the society manage to impose on the people by appeals to morality or vested interests or by means of coercion charismatic leadership or salience upon apathy. The present encyclopaedia provides a comparative view of the actual functioning of the constitutions of the United States of America, Britain, Canada and India and briefly touches on other constitutions of the world. This encyclopaedia is the first of its kind which has been published in India and may provide material which can be used by other developing countries. Most of the developing countries are still in the experimental stage in regard to constitution making and their actual functioning.
