Constitutions in the Global Financial Crisis
A Comparative Analysis
Edited by Xenophon Contiades
Ashgate 2013
316 p.

The book includes contributions from prominent experts on Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, the UK, and the USA providing a critical analysis of the effects of the financial crisis on the constitution. The volume’s extensive comparative chapter pins down distinct constitutional reactions towards the financial crisis, building an explanatory theory that accounts for the different ways constitutions responded to the crisis. How and why constitutions formed their reactions in the face of the financial crisis unravels throughout the book.

Contents: Introduction: the global financial crisis and the constitution, Xenophon Contiades; Part I Constitutional Reactions in Comparative Perspective: How constitutions react to the financial crisis, Xenophon Contiades and Alkmene Fotiadou. Part II First Path: Adjustment: The constitution and the financial crisis in Ireland, David Gwynn Morgan; The constitutional consequences of the financial crisis in Italy, Tania Groppi, Irene Spigno and Nicola Vizioli;  Financial crisis and the constitution in Latvia, Ringolds Balodis and Janis Pleps; The Spanish constitution in the turmoil of the global financial crisis, Agustin Ruiz Robledo; The constitution and the financial crisis in the UK: historical and contemporary lessons, John F. McEldowney. Part III Second Path: Submission: The impact of the financial crisis on the Greek constitution, Xenophon Contiades and Ioannis A. Tassopoulos; The sovereign debt crisis and the constitution’s negative outlook: a Portuguese preliminary assessment, Jonatas E.M. Machado. Part IV Third Path: Breakdown: Breaking and making constitutional rules: the constitutional effects of the financial crisis in Hungary, Zoltαn Szente; The impact of the financial crisis on Icelandic constitutional law: legislative reforms, judicial review and revision of the constitution, Björg Thorarensen. Part V Fourth Path: Stamina: The United States constitution and the great recession, Mark Tushnet; Index.