Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law. By Ran Hirschl. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 320 pp. $45.00 cloth.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12157
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Date: 01 September 2015

Relatedly, while the book does a very good job of living up to

the self-stated expectation of providing a rich explanation of the

larger sociopolitical context and the activists’ subjective evaluation

of the corresponding political opportunities and limitations, more

could have been done to explain the nature and effect of the emerg-

ing Christian conservative countermovement that began to chal-

lenge gay activists in the 2000s. The introduction of a substantial

countermovement changes the environment within which the gay

movement acts and adds a new entity beyond the state that they

must interact with and take into account. This significant change in

the sociopolitical context raises various questions. Is the movement

freed from the constraints that produce pragmatic resistance when

facing a nonstate adversary? If so, will it still devotedly adhere to

pragmatic resistance as its only form of activism? If they stick with

pragmatic resistance does its basic form change in any way? While

some of these issues are introduced they are not significantly

explored in the text.

These criticisms, however, are overshadowed by the book’s

overall contributions. The in-depth exploration of a contemporary

gay movement in an authoritarian state is a unique contribution to

the study of social movements generally and gay rights specifically.

The concept and examples of pragmatic resistance also provide a

very compelling contrast to how much of the literature discusses

political opportunity, resource mobilization, the means of activism,

and the place of law and rights in social movements. On this last

note, Professor Chua’s concluding discussion of the nature of law

and the politics of rights in Singapore is terrifically compelling and

invites pairing with many of the major Americanist texts on law and

social movements. Taken collectively, Mobilizing Gay Singapore is an

engaging read and a very welcomeaddition to the literature.

***

Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional

Law. By Ran Hirschl. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

320 pp. $45.00 cloth.

Reviewed by Benjamin L. Berger, Osgoode Hall Law School, York

University

As the epigraph to one chapter in his impressive volume, Compara-

tive Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law, Ran

Book Reviews 797