(Em)Powering the Constitution: Constitutionalism in a New Key
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Ming-Sung Kuo
Abstract
The idea of limited government is the key to constitutionalism in the traditional understanding of the relationship between the constitution and political power. In contrast to the traditionalist view that the constitution is aimed to constrain political power, this essay aims to explore a new understanding of constitutionalism. By way of analyzing the multiple functions of the constitution and taking up the concept of “total constitution" associated with the growing horizontal effect of constitutional rights, this essay argues that the relationship between the constitution and political power needs to be recast on complementary rather than opposing terms. The aspiration to “total constitution" in the sense of a fulfilled constitutionalism is substantiated by the omnipotent constitutional state. Taking account of constitutional omnipotence, political power is instrumental rather than antagonistic to the normative implementation of constitutionalism. Recasting the constitution as an expression of political power is the key to a new understanding of constitutionalism.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Topics Article
- Beyond Soft Law? An Assessment of International Labour Organisation Freedom of Association Complaints as a Means to Protect Collective Bargaining Rights in the United States
- Legal Education in a World Perspective
- U.S. Trade Relations with Arab Countries: Past, Present, and Future
- Capitalism, Communism and Colonialism? Revisiting "Transitology" as the Ideology of Informal Empire
- Competition Law and the Economy in the Russian Federation, 1990-2006
- Advances Article
- (Em)Powering the Constitution: Constitutionalism in a New Key
- La Comunidad de Carhuancho y Sus Avatares por el Agua: Una Mirada al Bien Común y Las Desigualidades Persistentes en la Sierra Central, Perú
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- Towards a Subaltern Theory of Human Rights
- Frontiers Article
- Un Mundo Donde Quepan Muchos Mundos: A Postcolonial Legal Perspective Inspired by the Zapatistas
