Constitutionalism
Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law".[1]
Further information: Constitutional lawPolitical organizations are constitutional to the extent that they "contain institutionalized mechanisms of power control for the protection of the interests and liberties of the citizenry, including those that may be in the minority".[2] As described by political scientist and constitutional scholar David Fellman:
There is often confusion in equating the presence of a written constitution with the conclusion that a state or polity is one based upon constitutionalism. As noted by , constitutionalism "should not be taken to mean that if a state has a constitution, it is necessarily committed to the idea of constitutionalism. In a very real sense... every state may be said to have a constitution, since every state has institutions which are at the very least expected to be permanent, and every state has established ways of doing things". But even with a "formal written document labelled 'constitution' which includes the provisions customarily found in such a document, it does not follow that it is committed to constitutionalism...."[21]
David Fellman
Often the word "constitutionalism" is used in a rhetorical sense, as a political argument that equates the views of the speaker or writer with a preferred view of the constitution. For instance, University of Maryland Constitutional History Professor Herman Belz's critical assessment of expansive constitutional construction notes that "constitutionalism... ought to be recognized as a distinctive ideology and approach to political life.... Constitutionalism not only establishes the institutional and intellectual framework, but it also supplies much of the rhetorical currency with which political transactions are carried on." Similarly, Georgetown University Law Center Professor Louis Michael Seidman noted as well the confluence of political rhetoric with arguments supposedly rooted in constitutionalism. In assessing the "meaning that critical scholars attributed to constitutional law in the late twentieth century," Professor Seidman notes a "new order... characterized most prominently by extremely aggressive use of legal argument and rhetoric" and as a result "powerful legal actors are willing to advance arguments previously thought out-of-bounds. They have, in short, used legal reasoning to do exactly what crits claim legal reasoning always does—put the lipstick of disinterested constitutionalism on the pig of raw politics."[23]
[22]
Classical liberalism
Constitutional liberalism
Constitution Party (disambiguation)
Constitutional law
Constitutionalism in the United States
Digital constitutionalism
Judicial interpretation
Libertarianism
Natural and legal rights
Philosophy of law
Rule according to higher law
Rule of law
Separation of powers
Social contract
Gebeye, Berihun Adugna (2021). A Theory of African Constitutionalism. Oxford University Press.
Möller, Kai (2012). The Global Model of Constitutional Rights, 0199664609, ISBN 9780199664603 Oxford University Press.
ISBN
Sandefur, Timothy (2008). "Constitutionalism". In (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 100–103. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n65. ISBN 978-1-4129-6580-4. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024.
Hamowy, Ronald
Waluchow, Wil. . In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Constitutionalism"
(David Fellman, "Constitutionalism"), vol 1, pp. 485, 491–492 (1973–74).
Philip P. Wiener, ed., "Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas"
National Humanities Institute
Constitutionalism and the Separation of Powers (1967, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998) Second edition.
MJC Vile
Middle East Constitutional Forum
Archived 2013-08-13 at the Wayback Machine Foundation for Law, Justice and Society programme