Title

From Origin to Delta: Changing Landscape of Modern Constitutionalism

Abstract

This article deals with the question of whether and to what extent the two forces of democratization and globalization have altered our understandings of constitutionalism. We attempt to theorize a changing landscape of constitutionalism that includes transitional and transnational perspectives and examine respectively their features, functions and characteristics. First, we analyze respective developments of transitional and transnational constitutionalism by identifying their features, perspectives, functions, and characteristics. Then we examine to what extent and in what ways the developments in transitional and transnational constitutionalism pose challenges to our traditional understanding of modern constitutional laws. Finally, we shall picture a new constitutional delta thus emerged and try to argue that notwithstanding challenges, the addition of transitional and transnational constitutionalism to traditional understandings has expanded the horizon of constitutionalism and created new opportunities for a coming generation of constitutional lawyers.

Disciplines

Comparative and Foreign Law | Constitutional Law | International Law | Law and Politics | Public Law and Legal Theory

Date of this Version

October 2006