The War against Law: What's Wrong with Common Good Constitutionalism

Author:   David Dyzenhaus (University of Toronto)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009864473


Pages:   289
Publication Date:   18 June 2026
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD   Availability explained
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The War against Law: What's Wrong with Common Good Constitutionalism


Overview

In the UK, lawyers of the 'Judicial Power Project' – a group largely based at elite universities with close ties to far-right figures in the US and Europe – rail against 'judicial overreach'. In this groundbreaking book, David Dyzenhaus investigates the ideology of this group, contending that their true aim is to establish rule by an illiberal executive under the guise of benefitting the 'common good'. Dyzenhaus makes a powerful argument that this is a fundamentally illiberal ideology with roots in authoritarian thought from the 1930s, one which threatens to take a wrecking ball to the rule of law and democracy. The War against Law offers a fascinating examination of these lawyers' ideas against the backdrop of the 2024 Rwanda Act, which required rendering asylum seekers in the UK to Rwanda. The debates both before and after the Act make concrete profound questions about the nature of the rule of law and its role in a liberal democracy.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Dyzenhaus (University of Toronto)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009864473


ISBN 10:   1009864475
Pages:   289
Publication Date:   18 June 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon it's release. This is a print on demand item which is still yet to be released.

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; 1. The new constitutional lobbyists; 2. Parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law; 3. A tale of a parallel universe; 4. Heresy vs. heresy: debating the rule of law; 5. Sovereignty, international law and the rule of law; 6. The political theology of the parallel universe.

Reviews

'It is marvellous that David Dyzenhaus, one of the world's top legal and constitutional theorists, unrivalled on wicked law in modern times, should enter the debate about judicial power in Britain. Wherever anyone stands on these issues, or on politics generally,  they must read this book.' Paul Tucker, Author of Global Discord


Author Information

David Dyzenhaus is University Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Legality and Legitimacy: Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller in Weimar (1999),The Constitution of Law: Legality in a Time of Emergency (2006), and The Long Arc of Legality: Hobbes, Kelsen, Hart (2022).

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Latest Reading Guide

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