The Concept of the Political in the Concept of Transnational Constitutionalism: A Sociological Perspective
AFTER GLOBALIZATION - NEW PATTERNS OF CONFLICT AND THEIR SOCIOLOGICAL AND LEGAL RECONSTRUCTION, pp. 285 - 321, Christian Jorges & Tommi Ralli, eds., Oslo: Arena Report Series, 2011
32 Pages Posted: 23 Jun 2011 Last revised: 19 Jan 2012
Date Written: June 22, 2011
Abstract
The question whether constitutions exists or can exist at all beyond the state has been a central theme of academic dispute in the last decades. This contribution departs from the historical insight that extensive forms of ordering possessing constitutional qualities always have existed beneath, beside and above the state. In the last decades the debate on constitutionalism beyond the state has however unfolded in two separate discourses: One which focuses on public international organizations and another which focuses on private structures. The former is mainly driven by political scientists and public lawyers and is characterized by an attempt to rework nation state concepts of the political in order to make them compatible with transnational developments. The latter is, on the other hand, systematically downplaying the political dimension of transnational structures. In order to bridge this gap a number of key dimensions of a specific transnational concept of the political is being fleshed out.
Keywords: Constitutionalism, constitution, constitutionalization, trans-national law, global law, world law, international organizations, private law, public law, concept of the political, Kjaer, Joerges, Teubner, transparency, accountability, public sphere, representation, world society, Amstutz
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