Political Constitutionalism and the European Union

What kind of constitution is emerging in Europe? There are two approaches to answering this question. The first, a ‘foundational’ approach, rejects the premise: there can be no real constitution in the absence of a ‘demos’, a foundation which exists only nationally. The second, ‘freestanding’ approach, depicts it as paradigmatic of a broader phenomenon of cosmopolitan constitutionalism, based on individual rights guaranteed through a transnational rule of law. Rejecting both for their failure to account for European constitutionalism as a historical process of polity‐building, a third approach, ‘political constitutionalism’, is proposed, capturing the dynamic quality of constitutionalisation in the EU. From this perspective, what is emerging in Europe is a constitution that reflects a common good (predominantly conceived in economic terms), albeit one which is legally, political and socially contested. It is by capturing this complex picture of the political formation of Europe that the constitutional question will be most fruitfully pursued.     

The Mutation of International Law in Contemporary Constitutions: Thinking Sociologically about Political Constitutionalism

This article proposes a sociological critique of theories of political constitutionalism, which distinguish sharply between political and judicial constitutionalism and express hostility towards constitutions allowing extensive judicial control of legislation. It argues that such theories are usually undermined by a sociologically deficient account of politics. As an alternative, this article proposes a theory of politics based in a model of systemic inclusion. Using this perspective, it claims that constitutions with a strong judicial emphasis, especially where judicial functions are supported by international norms, have served, in many societies, as an effective precondition for the emergence and persistence of a relatively secure, differentiated political domain. These claims are exemplified through analysis of recent constitution‐making experiments in Russia, Kenya and Bolivia.     

论基本权利的发展趋势

基本权利是宪法的核心和关键,是宪法的生命和价值所在,是宪法之所以成为根本法的原因.通过历史和实证分析,探讨近代宪法和现代宪法在确认和保障公民基本权利方面的若干发展趋势,即由自由权发展到社会权,由法律保障发展为宪法保障,由国内保障发展为国际保障.基本权利的这些发展趋势对我国的宪政制度建设提出了若干引人深思的问题.     

契约精神与宪政

契约精神是现代市场经济在观念形态上的集中表现,是市民社会新的政治理念的浓缩与集中表现。宪政是指国家依据一部充分体现现代政治文明的宪法进行治理,以实现一系列民主原则与制度为主要内容,以厉行法治为基本保证,以充分实现最广泛的人权为目的的一种政治制度。契约精神,与宪政具有内在的逻辑关系即契约精神是宪政思想的重要来源,源于契约精神的平等、自由因子是宪政的灵魂;契约精神为宪政秩序的构建提供了具体的制度范式;契约精神与宪政彼此互动,所产生的时代新精神,不断推动着宪政制度走向完善。     

"两个人权公约"与我国人权宪政体制的整合

加入"两个人权公约"使我国面临着人权宪政体制与"两个人权公约"的整合问题.在人权宪政理念上,需要对关于人权的传统主流观念重新审视;在人权宪政规范上,以加入"两个人权公约"为契机,修正我国宪法公民基本权利的某些条款,重构我国的人权宪政体制;在人权宪政的运作上,对两个人权公约采取保留、克减措施,发挥我国宪法解释机制的功能,同时,以宪法的司法化为前提,以"两个人权公约"作为我国司法审判的直接依据并建立宪法判例制度.可以预见,21世纪经济全球化趋势必将促进我国宪政人权制度国际化的进一步发展.     

Constitutional Directives: Morally‐Committed Political Constitutionalism

About 37 state constitutions around the world feature non‐justiciable thick moral commitments (‘constitutional directives’). These directives typically oblige the state to redistribute income and wealth, guarantee social minimums, or forge a religious or secular identity for the state. They have largely been ignored in a constitutional scholarship defined by its obsession with the legitimacy of judicial review and hostility to constitutionalising thick moral commitments other than basic rights. This article presents constitutional directives as obligatory telic norms, addressed primarily to the political state, which constitutionalise thick moral objectives. Their full realisation—through increasingly sophisticated mechanisms designed to ensure their political enforcement—is deferred to a future date. They are weakly contrajudicative in that these duties are not directly enforced by courts. Functionally, they help shape the discourse over a state's constitutional identity, and regulate its political and judicial organs. Properly understood, they are a key tool to realise a morally‐committed conception of political constitutionalism.     

European Union Constitution-Making, Political Identity and Central European Reflections

Abstract: This article focuses on the European Union's constitution‐making efforts and their specific reflections in the Central European accession states. It analyses both the temporal and spatial dimensions of constitution‐making and addresses the problems of political identity related to ethnic divisions and civic demos. It starts by summarising the major arguments supporting the Union's constitution‐making project and emphasises the Union's symbolic power as a polity built on the principles of civil society and parliamentary democracy. The EU's official rejection of ethnically based political identity played an important symbolic role in post‐Communist constitutional and legal transformations in Central Europe in the 1990s. In the following part, the text analyses the temporal dimension of the EU's identity‐building and constitution‐making and emphasises its profoundly future‐oriented structure. The concept of identity as the ‘future in process’ is the only option of how to deal with the absence of the European demos. Furthermore, it initiates the politically much‐needed constitution‐making process. The following spatial analysis of this process emphasises positive aspects of the horizontal model of constitution‐making, its elements in the Convention's deliberation and their positive effect on the Central European accession states. The article concludes by understanding the emerging European identity as a multi‐level identity of civil political virtues surrounded by old loyalties and traditions, which supports the conversational model of liberal democratic politics, reflects the continent's heterogeneity and leads to the beneficial combination of universal principles and political realism.     

The economic constitution and the political constitution: seeking the common good in the post-national setting

In the post-national setting, the concept of the ‘economic constitution’ has been seen as design template and saviour; whether based on transactional certitude or founded on ordoliberal precepts, the economic constitution is assumed to legitimate economic integration across national borders in the absence of comprehensive political settlement. Nevertheless, recent tensions – not only within the European Union (EU) but also, more strikingly, within the World Trade Organization context – indicate the limits of economic constitutionalism. This article seeks to identify the roots of recent dysfunction within the history and theory of economic constitutionalism. It traces the evolution of an adjudicational economic constitutionalism and its place within the EU legal order, including the new EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and contrasts this vision with the more comprehensive and/or socialized models of economic constitutionalism found not only within the Weimar Republic but also within the post-revolutionary/post-conflict constitutional context. The article also places a major emphasis on theorizing around the apex of economic-constitutional thought, ordoliberalism, but concludes that no concept of the economic constitution can be seen in isolation from its social-political context, or from notions of the common good. To this exact degree, failures in modern economic constitutionalism may derive from a misplaced universalism – a technocratic absolutism that abdicates political responsibility for the common good, locating it instead in an ‘idolatry of the factual’ or a new naturalism of market inevitability.     

论宪政与民主

宪政与民主是两种不同的理论 ,二者存在着差别 ,也存在着契合。民主与宪政都是现代政制的基础。然而 ,民主强调公民的参政权和政治秩序 ,宪政强调对政府(国家权力 )的限制和防范。这一区别使二者的互相补充与结合成为必要。也就是说 ,理想的政制是民主与宪政的结合 ,即宪政民主。     

Reforming the United Kingdom Constitution: Law,Convention, Soft Law

The Governance of Britain Green Paper continues the programme of constitutional reform begun in 1997, and appears to reinforce the juridification of the UK's constitution. Nevertheless, several key reforms will be implemented not by legislation, but by creating new conventions. This article argues that such ‘declared’ conventions are best understood as a form of constitutional ‘soft law’, which attempt to influence constitutional behaviour rather than generating binding norms. Applying a regulatory analysis, it then argues that the case for a soft, rather than hard law approach to constitutional reform is weaker than its widespread use in the UK suggests. Finally, the article challenges the thesis that the political constitution is being replaced by a legal constitution, arguing that the government's attitude to constitutional reform still exhibits basic characteristics of political constitutionalism. Moreover, there is more to contemporary constitutional developments than a bipolar contest between political and legal constitutionalism.     

宪政:中国的困境与出路——梁漱溟宪政思想研究

本文述介梁漱溟先生关于宪法与宪政的基本看法 ,特别是他从不同人文类型的观照中对于中国模仿、移植西方宪政的困境的分析 ,有关中国走向宪政之路的思虑 ,同时并述及各种政治力量对此所作的反应 ,指出在中国近代百年宪政思潮中 ,梁漱溟宪政思想的特立卓越处。     

宪政——人类法治文明的最高结晶

文章从依法治国首先要依宪治国 ,实行法治关键要实行宪政立论 ,层层深入地阐析了宪政的涵义 ,宪政与宪法的关系 ,宪政的性质、特征及要义 ,宪政与民主、法治、人权的关系等重要问题。     

宪政基因概论——英美宪政生成路径的启示

宪政基因是具有历史传承性的 ,能够引起宪政产生并决定其性质与发展方向的基本的社会因素。英美宪政之所以能率先生成并成为其他国家的学习典范 ,一个至关重要的原因是英美社会中较早地生成了个人权利诉求、政治权力多元和法律至上的宪政基因。这些基因是宪政产生及发展的原始动力 ,体现为宪法中的人民主权、基本人权、分权与制衡以及法治等原则。缺乏宪政基因的东方国家 ,最重要的是在社会上有意识地移植和培养这种基因 ,否则即使制定了宪法 ,也未必能够很好地实施。     

宪政:和谐的生活哲学

宪政属于宪法哲学范畴。宪法哲学属于哲学 ,属于法哲学、生活哲学、未来之学 ,属于科学。在宪法哲学的上述不同层面 ,宪政分别聚焦于对“宪法·人民·政府”、“权力·法律·权利”、“宪法·生活·政治”、“传统·现实·理想”、“正义·科学·效益”等相互关系之本源和应然的追问。对此 ,我们的回答是 :宪法是作为国家权力所有者的人民与作为国家权利行使者的政府之间的“契约” ;法治的精义在于通过对公权力廉洁性和完整性的“保障”而实现对人权的保障 ;宪政既以民主为基础又对民主的某些性格保持着警惕 ;宪政的理想可以激发完善现状的热情 ,历史的评判则可防杜社会的倒退 ;宪政同时结晶着科学、正义、效益三种精神。     

Distinguishing Between Influences on Brazilian Legislative Behavior

Ideal point estimators hold the promise of identifying multiple dimensions of political disagreement as they are manifested in legislative voting. However, standard ideal point estimates do not distinguish between ideological motivations and voting inducements from parties, coalitions, or the executive. In this article we describe a general approach for hierarchically identifying an ideological dimension using an auxiliary source of data. In the case we consider, we use an anonymous survey of Brazilian legislators to identify party positions on a left‐right ideology dimension. We then use this data to distinguish ideological motivations from other determinants of roll‐call behavior for eight presidential‐legislative periods covering more than 20 years of Brazilian politics. We find that there exists an important nonideological government‐opposition dimension, with the entrance and exit of political parties from the governing coalition appearing as distinct shifts in ideal point on this second dimension. We conjecture that the Brazilian president's control over politically important resources is the source of this dimension of conflict, which has recently become far more important in explaining roll‐call voting than the ideological dimension.     

作为宪政实践机制的合宪性审查

合宪性审查作为一种宪政实践机制,蕴涵了宪法的“高级法”观念、自然正义、宪法保障、分权与权力理性、宪政民主、人权保障等思想基础,集中展示它的宪政性与现代意义。为此,应当认真对待宪政生活中的合宪性,当前我国的关键问题不在于应否创制,而在于如何创制合宪性审查机制。     

人权的内核——兼论“以人为本”的宪法涵义

宪法上基本权利的保障有其基础理论和核心内容,西方实证宪法和宪政理论都肯定“人的尊严”构成了人权的内核。人的尊严是人权宪法保障的哲学依据,是人权生长的原点,是对基本权利限制的限制。“国家尊重和保障人权”是一种规范性表述,而非描述性表述,其中蕴含着一定的价值判断,表明“以人为本”已经从实证法形式上升为国家理念,构成了我国宪政制度建构的根本,是借鉴世界其他国家宪政和人权理论与制度的坚固基础。     

European Constitutionalism and the Modern Social Imaginary

This article seeks to shed light on some of the problematic assumptions underpinning the contemporary debate over the constitutional identity of the European Union. The central claim put forward here is that the development of the European Union’s constitution is significantly constrained by what Charles Taylor has described as the modern social imaginary. The constraint operates at two levels. First, modern understandings of constitutionalism typically ignore or underemphasize its dynamic and historical characteristics and its relationship with the self-understanding of political subjects. Thus, modern constitutionalism fails to acknowledge the importance of historically conditioned assumptions involved in the formation of the identities of political subjects. In short, it fails to understand constitutionalism as a ‘regime’. Second, modern constitutionalism’s blind-spots result in a relatively unreflective adherence to a particular type of constitutional regime: the modern economy and its associated ‘consumerist’ form of political citizenship.     

American Constitutionalism and Democratic Virtue

Neither the historical tradition of American constitutionalism nor those who have theorized about it have promoted political or theoretical designs hospitable to the valorization or promotion of democratic virtue. This article illustrates this point by canvassing practical interpretations of the American constitution, from the document of 1787–1791 to Bush v. Gore , and theoretical interpretations from Madison to Rawls, Dworkin, Ackerman, Elster, Holmes, and other contemporary theorists of liberal constitutionalism and natural law. Exposing these roadblocks to the theory and practice of democratic virtue in America, it argues, provides a critical corrective to current debates about the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy.     

宪法失序与对行政权剩余的规制——以执行权的变迁为视角

我国现行宪法认为行政权是一种执行法律的权力,没有政治功能派分。但在宪政实践中,行政权既有执行功能,又有政治功能,其政治功能缺乏合法性。行政权的扩张使宪法失序,主要原因是现有宪法没有一套规制行政权非正式来源的有效方案。宪法沉默之处就是宪法危机之所。行政权的非正式来源有其必然性,外在的、事前或事后的、间断的宪法制约机制不足以规制行政权,必须有内在的、事中的、连续的宪法制约机制予以配合。规范主义宪法的有效性必须向生活领域开放;功能主义宪法观的合法性必须获得法治化建构。行政法治模式宜以规范主义宪法为基础,以功能主义为补充。行政的开放性、公民参与、法律程序是内在宪法制约机制的要素。