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Sociological Constitutionalism

Sociological Constitutionalism

Sociological Constitutionalism

Paul Blokker, Faculty of Social Sciences/Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University
Chris Thornhill, University of Manchester
November 2017
Available
Hardback
9781107124042

    This landmark book provides the first systematic overview of the key scholarly contributions in an emerging field of research on constitutionalism: the sociology of constitutions. It presents chapters offering very different normative and methodological approaches to constitutions, ranging from analysis of national constitutional law, to research on transnational legal forms, to discussions of the constitutional impact of international human rights law. The book makes an important contribution to a series of wider debates - spanning constitutional law, legal theory, comparative constitutionalism, sociology, and political science - about the changing nature of constitutionalism. Researchers and students in constitutional law will gain a comprehensive appreciation of a diverse range of distinctively sociological approaches to constitutional law and an in-depth understanding of distinctive sociological dimensions of constitutions. The book offers insights into the sources of constitutional normativity in society and it proposes different sociological methods for addressing them.

    • Provides a cross-section of sociological current sociological research, including a diverse range of approaches to constitutional law and the importance for constitutions in contemporary sociology
    • Contributes significantly to a scholarly understanding of constitutional change, including the transformation of modern constitutionalism
    • Addresses constitutional norm formation in different societies at both global and transnational levels

    Product details

    December 2018
    Paperback
    9781107561144
    367 pages
    230 × 150 × 20 mm
    0.54kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction
    • Sociological constitutionalism Paul Blokker and Chris Thornhill
    • Part I. National Constitutions and Sociological Method:
    • 1. The social lives of constitutions Kim Lane Scheppele
    • 2. Towards a sociology of constitutional transformation – understanding South Africa's post-Apartheid constitutional order Heinz Klug
    • 3. Sociological constitutionalism – an evolutionary approach Hauke Brunkhorst
    • Part II. Constitutional Sociology between the National and the Transnational:
    • 4. Constitutionalism between nation states and global law Chris Thornhill
    • 5. Politics and the political in sociological constitutionalism Paul Blokker
    • 6. Constitutions as symbolic orders – the cultural analysis of constitutionalism Hans Vorländer
    • 7. The rule of the market: economic constitutionalism understood sociologically Sabine Frerichs
    • Part III. Constitutional Law and Transnational Society:
    • 8. From constitutionalism to transconstitutionalism: beyond constitutional nationalism, cosmopolitan constitutional unity and fragmentary constitutional pluralism Marcelo Neves
    • 9. Societal constitutionalism: nine variations on a theme by David Sciulli Gunther Teubner.
      Contributors
    • Paul Blokker, Chris Thornhill, Kim Lane Scheppele, Heinz Klug, Hauke Brunkhorst, Hans Vorländer, Sabine Frerichs, Marcelo Neves, Gunther Teubner

    • Editors
    • Paul Blokker , Faculty of Social Sciences/Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University

      Paul Blokker is Associate Professor and Jean Monnet Chair at the Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University, Prague. He is co-editor of the journal Social Imaginaries and International Advisory Board member of the European Journal of Social Theory. His publications include New Democracies in Crisis? A Comparative Constitutional Study of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, (2013). He is increasingly publishing on sociological constitutionalism, including 'EU Democratic Oversight and Domestic Deviation from the Rule of Law: Sociological Reflections', in: C. Closa and D. Kochenov (eds), Reinforcing the Rule of Law Oversight in the European Union (Cambridge, 2016).

    • Chris Thornhill , University of Manchester

      Chris Thornhill is Professor of Law at the University of Manchester. His publications include: A Sociology of Constitutions: Constitutions and State Legitimacy in Historical-Sociological Perspective (Cambridge, 2011); A Sociology of Transnational Constitutions: Social Foundations of the Post-National Legal Structure (Cambridge, 2016); and as co-editor, Law and the Formation of Modern Europe (Cambridge, 2014). He is currently the holder of an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. His publications have appeared in many languages, including German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. He is a member of the Academia Europaea.