December 13, 2016

by Dr. Alkmene Fotiadou, Centre for European Constitutional Law. One of the major problems with comparative constitutional law relates to the difficulty of understanding different contexts before attempting to apply comparative methodology. Often similarities are detected, such as identical or akin constitutional provisions, matching political and constitutional practices, institutional similarities etc. Nonetheless, drawing conclusions from such similarities (aimed either at theorizing about the constitution, or at making constitutional design choices) entails the danger of overlooking the contextual basis.