Small State Constitutionalism

This volume addresses the important, but under-noticed, question of the impact of state size and scale for constitutional law and governance, and brings together leading global scholars to focus on the lessons from a range of small states and jurisdictions in this context.

Often, the best way to understand the effect of scale is to examine states where scale is demonstrably lacking. Doing so allows a form of “reflective” comparison that provides greater insight and clarity into the significance of state size, and constitutional scale, as a factor affecting a range of democratic constitutional outcomes. The volume also explicitly invites critical reflection on, and problematisation of, the issues of line-drawing and boundary definition around notions of state and jurisdictional size.

The collection features contributions by scholars from a wide range of jurisdictions, living and working across the Global South and North, and includes attention to the constitutional experiences of small states and jurisdictions in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean and Oceania that have not received much coverage in the literature. As such, it makes a meaningful contribution to regionally-focused constitutional debates. This is especially significant in the Caribbean and Oceania, where a large percentage of states are small states, and there is only a limited body of constitutional scholarship focusing on the constitutional experiences of such jurisdictions. More generally, this volume will be of interest to audiences working in and interested in small states generally, as well as a broader comparative audience interested in issues of scale in constitutional design and implementation.

Author Biography

Elisabeth Perham is Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Justice at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Maartje De Visser is Associate Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law and College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Management University, Singapore.
Rosalind Dixon is a Scientia Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales, Australia.