Constitutional foundings in South Asia, edited by Kevin YL Tan and Ridwanul Hoque, Hart Publishing, 2021 Oxford GBP 58.50. Hardback

Abstract

ABSTRACT Constitutional Foundings in South Asia is as important an addition to understanding constitutionalism in South Asia as it is a work of wider interest to scholars of comparative constitutional law everywhere, featuring all the eight countries of SAARC in one impressive volume for the first time. In this review, we critically explore the two larger premises of Constitutional Foundings: an inclusive-regional approach to comparative constitutionalism, and a history-centred method for theory-building on constitution-making and its aftereffects. We argue that if we are to truly look beyond western liberal constitutionalism for contextualizing constitution-making, we need to move in the direction of embedding the field as much as possible within the existing political history debates on South Asia. We accordingly suggest ways for bridging the gaps between case study, history and comparative theory in the context of constitutionalism in South Asia.