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Memory, Past Evils and Constitutional Justice. Lessons from the United States, Germany and South Africa

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Review essay on Justin Collings, Scales of Memory: Constitutional Justice and Historical Evil (Oxford University Press 2021)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2024

Francesco Biagi
Francesco Biagi*
Affiliation:
University of Bologna, Italy, email: francesco.biagi4@unibo.it
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Review Essay
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European Constitutional Law Review , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 2023 , pp. 738 - 751
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of University of Amsterdam

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References

1 J. Collings, Scales of Memory. Constitutional Justice and Historical Evil (Oxford University Press 2021) p. 2.

2 In 1962 Klaus Epstein observed that ‘the study of comparative constitutional history is still in its infancy’: K. Epstein, ‘A New German Constitutional History’, 34(3) The Journal of Modern History (1962) p. 308. More than 60 years later, his observation remains topical.

3 See the articles in the ‘Symposium: Constitutional History: Comparative Perspectives’, University of Illinois Law Review (2017) p. 475; F. Biagi et al. (eds.), Comparative Constitutional History. Volume 1: Principles, Developments, Challenges (Brill 2020); F. Biagi et al. (eds.), Comparative Constitutional History. Volume 2: Uses of History in Constitutional Adjudication (Brill 2023); W. Partlett, ‘Historiography and Comparative Constitutional Scholarship’, 1 Comparative Constitutional Studies (2023) p. 267, at https://doi.org/10.4337/ccs.2023.0014, visited 29 January 2024.

4 R. Uitz, Constitutions, Courts and History. Historical Narratives in Constitutional Adjudication (Central European University Press 2006).

5 D. Barak-Erez, ‘History and Memory in Constitutional Adjudication’, 45(1) Federal Law Review (2017) p. 1.

6 O.O. Varol, ‘The Origins and Limits of Originalism: A Comparative Study’, 44 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (2011) p. 1239.

7 J. Greene and Y. Tew, ‘Comparative Approaches to Constitutional History’, in E.F. Delaney and R. Dixon (eds.), Comparative Judicial Review (Edward Elgar 2018) p. 379 ff.

8 See also, more recently, Biagi et al. (eds.) (2023), supra n. 3.

9 R.G. Teitel, ‘Transitional Justice Genealogy’, 16 Harvard Human Rights Journal (2003) p. 69. See also R.G. Teitel, Transitional Justice (Oxford University Press 2000).

10 On the role of courts in transitional countries see in particular T. Ginsburg, Judicial Review in New Democracies. Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases (Cambridge University Press 2003); W. Sadurski (ed.), Constitutional Justice, East and West. Democratic Legitimacy and Constitutional Courts in Post-Communist Europe in a Comparative Perspective (Kluwer Law International 2002); T.G. Daly, The Alchemists. Questioning Our Faith in Courts as Democracy-Builders (Cambridge University Press 2017); F. Biagi, European Constitutional Courts and Transitions to Democracy (Cambridge University Press 2020).

11 A. Stone Sweet, ‘Constitutional Courts’, in M. Rosenfeld and A. Sajó (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press 2012) p. 827.

12 J. Collings, ‘What Should Comparative Constitutional History Compare?’, University of Illinois Law Review (2017) p. 488.

13 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 2.

14 Ibid., p. 3.

15 Ibid., p. 3, who relies on the terms coined by M. Rosenfeld, ‘Constitutional Identity’, in Rosenfeld and Sajó (eds.), supra n. 11, p. 756-776 and 766-769. According to the classification proposed by Rosenfeld, the revolution-based constitution and the war-based constitution are similar as they both result from a radical break with the previous regime. However, the war-based model, unlike the revolution-based model, ‘can only result in successful constitution-making if the citizenry of the defeated polity eventually embraces as its own the resulting constitution launched by the victors’: ibid., p. 768. In addition to the 1949 German Basic Law, another example of a war-based constitutional text is the 1946 Constitution of Japan. A pact-based constitution, on the other hand, is the outcome of negotations and agreements between the leadership of the ancien régime and the proponents of the new constitutional order. In addition to the 1996 South African Constitution, another example of a pact-based constitutional text is the 1978 Spanish Constitution (ibid., p. 769).

16 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 3.

17 R. Hirschl, Comparative Matters. The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press 2014) p. 256.

18 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 301.

19 K.L. Scheppele, ‘Constitutional Interpretation after Regimes of Horror’, in S. Karstedt (ed.), Legal Institutions and Collective Memories (Hart Publishing 2009) p. 233 ff.

20 See Sadurski (ed.), supra n. 10; W. Sadurski, Rights Before Courts: A Study of Constitutional Courts in Postcommunist States of Central and Eastern Europe (Springer 2014).

21 One need only recall the infamous Dred Scott v Sandford case, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857).

22 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

23 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 301.

24 Ibid., p. 302.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid., p. 5.

27 Ibid., p. 4-11.

28 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

29 7 BVerfGE 198 (1958).

30 S v Makwanyane (CCT 3/94) (1995).

31 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 304.

32 Ibid., p. 28.

33 Ibid., p. 305.

34 3 BVerfGE 58 (1953).

35 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 105.

36 On this issue see C. Pavone, Alle origini della Repubblica. Scritti su fascismo, antifascismo e continuità dello Stato (Bollati Boringhieri 1995); M. Fiorillo, La nascita della Repubblica italiana e i problemi giuridici della continuità (Giuffrè 2000).

37 K. Loewenstein, ‘Militant Democracy and Fundamental Rights’, 31(3) The American Political Science Review (1937) p. 417 ff.

38 2 BVerfGE 1 (1952).

39 5 BVerfGE 85 (1956).

40 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 189.

41 Ibid., p. 218 ff.

42 Ibid., p. 244 ff.

43 S v Makwanyane (CCT 3/94) (1995).

44 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 201.

45 See C. Murray, ‘A Constitutional Beginning: Making South Africa’s Final Constitution’, 23(3) University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review (2001) p. 813; H. Ebrahim and L.E. Miller, ‘Creating the Birth Certificate of a New South Africa. Constitution Making After Apartheid’, in L.E. Miller (ed.), Framing the State in Times of Transition. Case Studies in Constitution Making (United States Institute of Peace Press 2010) p. 120 ff.

46 See Certification of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (CCT 23/96) (1996).

47 Certification of the Amended Text of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (CCT 37/96) (1996).

48 A. Lollini, Constitutionalism and Transitional Justice in South Africa (Berghahn Books 2011) p. 63.

49 See A. Lollini and F. Palermo, ‘Comparative Law and the ‘Proceduralization’ of Constitution-Building Processes’, in J. Raue and P. Sutter (eds.), Facets and Practices of State-Building (Martinus Nijhoff 2009) p. 301 ff.

50 Collings, supra n. 1, p. 13.

51 Ibid., p. 296.

52 Ibid., p. 314.

53 Ibid., p. 315.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid., p. 314.

56 Ibid., p. 251.

57 Ibid., p. 306.

58 Ibid., p. 312.

59 Ibid., p. 305.

60 Collings’ interview in M. Flores, ‘La giustizia che fa i conti con la storia’, Il Corriere della Sera – la Lettura (24 January 2021) p. 11.

61 See V.A. Bruno, ‘“Centre Right? What Centre Right?” Italy’s Right-wing Coalition: Forza Italia’s Political “Heritage” and the Mainstreaming of the Far Right’, in V.A. Bruno (ed.), Populism and Far-Right. Trends in Europe (EDUCatt 2022) p. 174-175.

62 Ibid., p. 176-178.

63 Collings’ interview in Flores, supra n. 60, p. 11.

64 See J. Collings, ‘Memory as Mantle. Evil Past and Judges’ Power in Germany and South Africa’, in Biagi et al. (eds.) (2023), supra n. 3. p. 71 ff.

65 See Biagi, supra n. 10, p. 176.

66 Ibid., p. 62 ff.

67 For example, the first judges of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic had been educated abroad and/or were fierce opponents of the Communist regime (including the first President of the Court, Zdeněk Kessler). Thus, the Court was ‘anticommunist in its political make-up’: Sadurski (2014), supra n. 20, p. 22.

68 See Collings, supra n. 64, p. 91.

69 See A. Sachs, The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (McGraw Hill 1967); A. Sachs, Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter (University of California Press 2014); A. Sachs, The Free Diary of Albie Sachs (Random House 2004).

70 See Biagi, supra n. 10, p. 50.

71 In a previous article, Collings himself acknowledged that he did not include Italy as a separate case study as the ‘Constitutional Court’s invocations of fascism are comparatively quite rare’: Collings, supra n. 12, p. 489, fn. 77.

72 Collings, supra n. 12, p. 475 ff.

73 Ibid., p. 486.

74 J. Collings, Democracy’s Guardians. A History of the German Federal Constitutional Court 1951–2001 (Oxford University Press 2015).

75 Collings, supra n. 12, p. 487.

76 Ibid., p. 477 and 488.

77 Ibid., p. 489.

78 Ibid., p. 477.

79 Ibid.

80 Ibid., p. 495.