Social Difference and Constitutionalism in Pan-Asia

In many countries, social differences, such as religion or race and ethnicity, threaten the stability of the social and legal order. This book addresses the role of constitutions and constitutionalism in dealing with the challenge of difference. The book brings together lawyers, political scientists, historians, religious studies scholars, and area studies experts to consider how constitutions address issues of difference across “Pan-Asia,” a wide swath of the world that runs from the Middle East, through Asia, and into Oceania. The book\u27s multidisciplinary and comparative approach makes it unique. The book is organized into five sections, each devoted to constitutional approaches to a particular type of difference – religion, ethnicity/race, urban/rural divisions, language, and gender and sexual orientation – in two or more countries in Pan Asia. The introduction offers a framework for thinking comprehensively about the many ways constitutionalism interacts with difference. Includes an interdisciplinary analysis of constitutions and difference from the perspectives of law, political science, history, area studies and religious studies. Examines the issue of constitutions and difference across a wide swath of the world that includes all major religions, countless ethnic and linguistic groups, and a wide range of constitutional systems. Focuses on constitutions as mechanisms for dealing with difference. Maurer Professor Steve Sanders co-authored (with Sean Dickson) the chapter titled India, Nepal, and Pakistan: A Unique South Asian Constitutional Discourse on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, while Maurer Professor David C. Williams contributed Asymmetrical Federalism in Burma.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1057/thumbnail.jp