The Nordic counternarrative: Democracy, human development, and judicial review

Abstract

The Nordic countries’ changing constitutional scenery is a largely unexplored paradise for theory building in the field of comparative constitutional law and politics. As the articles in this symposium illustrate, the Nordic countries provide what is, arguably, a most fitting test case for examining the impact of transnational law on domestic constitutionalism, with its patterns of global convergence alongside enduring national divergence. Likewise, the Nordic experience calls for the incorporation of comparative politics or political economy theory into the study of constitutional law. This is particularly true with respect to the empirical examination of some core insights of post–World War II constitutional theory concerning the origins of constitutionalization and judicial review and the supposedly critical role of the latter in facilitating democracy and high levels of human development.