The constitutional theatre

Res Publica

Volumn 8, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 231-248

  Tans, Olaf ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Constitutionalism; Constructivism; Discourse; Dworkin; Epistemological foundationalism; Modernism

Indexed keywords

EID: 34248083933     PISSN: 13564765     EISSN: 15728692     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1020856202695     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. R. Rorty, Objectivism, Relativism, and Truth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 199.
2. This position is taken in J.E. Lane, Constitutions and Political Theory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996), 25;
3. S.L. Elkin, "Constitutionalism: Old and New", in S.L. Elkin & K.E. Soltan, eds, A New Constitutionalism: Designing Political Institutions for a Good Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 20-37, pp. 21, 32;
4. D. Castiglione, "The Political Theory of the Constitution", in R. Bellamy & D. Castiglione, eds, Constitutionalism in Transformation: European and Theoretical Perspectives (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), 5-23, p. 9;
5. and R. Kay, "American Constitutionalism", in L. Alexander, ed., Constitutionalism: Philosophical Foundations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 16-63, p. 16.
6. C.H. McIlwain, Constitutionalism, Ancient and Modern (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1947).
7. A. d'Entrèves, The Notion of the State: An Introduction to Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), 75-81;
8. McIlwain, The Notion of the State: An Introduction to Political Theory op. cit., 57.
9. McIlwain, The Notion of the State: An Introduction to Political Theory Ibid., 67-92.
10. This is why Dicey states that "Our constitution, in short, is a judge-made constitution, and it bears on its face all the features, good and bad, of judge-made law." - A. V. Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, eighth edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982) (reprinted from the 1915 edition), 116.
11. K.E. Soltan, "What Is the New Constitutionalism?", in Elkin & Soltan, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, eighth edition op. cit., 3-19, p. 4.
12. M. Weber, Economy and Society (New York: Bedminster Press, 1969).
13. N. Murphy and J. McClendon, "Distinguishing Modern and Postmodern Theologies", Modern Theology 5 (1989), 191-214;
14. N. Murphy, "Scientific Realism and Postmodern Philosophy", The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 41 (1990), 291-303.
15. See also D. Patterson, Law and Truth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 151-79.
16. I. Pogany, "The Constitution in Post-Communist Societies", in Bellamy & Castiglione, Law and Truth op. cit., 156-79, p. 159: the author cites Slovakia, Romania and many of the post-Soviet states.
17. See also M. Krygier, "Is There Constitutionalism after Communism? Institutional Optimism, Cultural Pessimism and the Rule of Law", International Journal of Sociology, 26 (1996-7), 17-47.
18. Lane, ", International Journal of Sociology, op. cit., 11.
19. See for instance P. Brest, Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking: Cases and Materials (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1975).
20. Constitutional arguments are analysed in P. Bobbitt, Constitutional Fate: A Theory of the Constitution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982);
21. R.H. Fallon Jr., "A Constructivist Coherence Theory of Constitutional Interpretation", Harvard Law Review, 100 (1987), 1189-286.
22. I refer to British anti-terrorism legislation regarding Northern Ireland, as analysed in J.E. Finn, Constitutions in Crisis: Political Violence and the Rule of Law (Oxford University Press: New York/Oxford, 1991), 84-134.
23. I refer to a decision of the German constitutional court regarding the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty by the German Parliament: BVerfGE 89, 155-213.
24. R.J. Lipkin, "Liberalism and the Possibility of Multicultural Constitutionalism: The Distinction Between Deliberative and Dedicated Cultures", University of Richmond Law Review, 29 (1995), 1263-325. How, for instance, will we ever be able to give constitutional recognition to cultural phenomena such as women's circumcision or vendetta?
25. As in J. Tully, Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
26. Soltan, Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity op. cit., 14.
27. R. Rorty, Truth, Politics and Post-modernism (Assen: Van Gorcum & Co., 1997), 26.
28. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954).
29. E. Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology (Padstow: The Free Press, 1951), 297-325.
30. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire (London: Fontana, 1986), 223: "According to law as integrity, propositions of law are true if they figure in or follow from the principles of justice, fairness, and procedural due process that provide the best constructive interpretation of the community's legal practice."
31. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire Ibid., 398. Dworkin uses the word "integrity" in the sense of completeness.
32. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire Ibid., 78-83.
33. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire Ibid., 78-9.
34. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire Ibid., 80.
35. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire 80. Ibid.
36. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire Ibid., 83.
37. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire Ibid., 86.
38. Dworkin speaks of a ". . . silly and wasteful preliminary dance of skepticism":R. Dworkin, Law's Empire 86. ibid.
39. R. Dworkin, Law's Empire Ibid., 126.
40. Claims of constitutional right presuppose moral arguments that we, as reasonable agents, can properly judge. This constitutional morality is analysed in N. MacCormick and O. Weinberger, An Institutional Theory of Law. New Approaches to Legal Positivism (Dordrecht: Reidel Publishing Company, 1992), 171-88.
41. T.A. van Dijk, ed., Discourse as Structure and Process. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction vol. 1 (London: Sage Publications, 1997).
42. L. Berger and T. Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967), 50-63, p. 55. The authors have in mind primarily the social knowledge of everyday life, for instance the ability to operate in a physical environment or to behave socially, but they also mention more complicated and particular aggregates of knowledge such as the law (166).
43. H. Putnam, Representation and Reality (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1989), 115.
44. See also Patterson, Representation and Reality op. cit., 151.
45. W.V.O. Quine, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", in his From a Logical Point of View (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953), 20-46.
46. See also Rorty, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", in his From a Logical Point of View op. cit.1953), 20-46.
47. K. Füzér, "The Invisible Constitution: The Construction of Constitutional Reality in Hungary", International Journal of Sociology, 26 (1996-7), 48-65.
48. K. Füzér, "International Journal of Sociology, Ibid., 53, 62.
49. K. Füzér, "International Journal of Sociology, Ibid., 51.
50. A. Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 4.
51. Dworkin, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration op. cit., 12, 13, 225.
52. Dworkin, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration Ibid., 14.
53. Dworkin, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration Ibid., 398, 404, 380.
54. Rorty, Truth, Politics and Postmodernism, op. cit., 26.
55. A.S. Miller, Politics, Democracy, and the Supreme Court (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1985), 27.