Interpretation and Authority in State Constitutionalism

Interpretation and Authority in State Constitutionalism

Should Progressive Constitutionalism Embrace Popular Constitutionalism?

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.,...

Political constitutionalism

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...

Sovereignty Regimes: Territoriality and State Authority in Contemporary World Politics

I propose a concept of effective sovereignty to argue that states participate in sovereignty regimes that exhibit distinctive combinations of central state authority and political territoriality. Two basic conclusions, drawing from recent research in political geography and other fields, are that sovereignty is neither inherently territorial nor is it exclusively organized on a state-by-state b...

New Governance , Law and Constitutionalism