Is the political process, with all its difficulties, merely reflective of contemporary constitutionalism? Are the problems an aspect of ongoing inter-communal dialogue? To what extent are existing difficulties exacerbated by a general failure to grasp the difference between the logic of law and political theory and practice? These questions are addressed here in three basic stages: first, the r...

Because my expertise is in early American history, I will concentrate on Larry Kramer’s portrait of pre-Revolutionary popular constitutionalism, which acts as a baseline against which to measure nineteenth-century developments. Before examining pre-Revolutionary constitutionalism, however, I want to note two features of Kramer’s style of historical argument that make the book a particularly sop...

There are two conceptions of progressive constitutionalism explored in this Symposium. The first is of progressive constitutionalism as, first and foremost, a programmatic agenda, focused on how progressives’ “distinctive constitutional vision may best be transmuted into claims of constitutional law.”1 To the extent that this constitutional vision entails only a set of policy preferences (e.g.,...

From antiquity down to the modern era, philosophers, political scientists and jurists have always recognised the imperatives of constitutionalism and the difficulties of attaining this. It is perhaps trite to say that we live in a time of rapid and momentous changes in every sphere of life, none more so than in constitutional governance. For Africa, after more than four decades of mostly author...

This essay describes and evaluates three paradigmatic constitutionalist responses to increased global interdependence and integration. In recent years in debates on globalization constitutionalism in general has created surprisingly high hopes and astonishingly deep anxieties: some have presented the constitutionalization of international law as a kind of last ‘realistic utopia’; others have be...

From antiquity down to the modern era, philosophers, political scientists and jurists have always recognised the imperatives of constitutionalism and the difficulties of attaining this. It is perhaps trite to say that we live in a time of rapid and momentous changes in every sphere of life, none more so than in constitutional governance. For Africa, after more than four decades of mostly author...

Taking into consideration the recent studies on “constitutionalism of global south”, aim this article is to critically analyze applicability mentioned concept, highlighting potentialities and inadequacies its theoretical construction. The hypothesis states that notwithstanding relative frailties concept “global it possible conceive emergency a grounded singular innovative experiences several “s...

BACKGROUND Global constitutionalism is a way of looking at the world, at global rules and how they are made, as if there was a global constitution, empowering global institutions to act as a global government, setting rules which bind all states and people. ANALYSIS This essay employs global constitutionalism to examine how and why global health governance, as currently structured, has strugg...

For ‘legal constitutionalists’, written constitutions, constitutive of the legal and political system, superior to other legislation, entrenched against change, and enumerating justiciable rights, guarantee equal respect and concern for all citizens. Judicial review is thus an essential support of democracy. In this book, Richard Bellamy offers a robust argument against this view of constitutio...

This Essay offers the first in-depth examination of the role of colorblind constitutionalism in the history of Brown v. Board of Education. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, such an examination is needed today more than ever. In this case, Chief Justice John Roberts drew on the history of Brown to support his c...