This paper approaches Walker’s work from the perspective of the ubiquity of human rights language within the rhetoric of global constitutionalism. Building on Walker’s description of the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy, what I wish to suggest is that the spread of human rights discourse is intimately connected with attempts to apply constitutional discourse beyond the state. By highlighting the way in which human rights have become place-takers for political legitimacy in discussions of international constitutionalism, the paper is intended to challenge Walker to state his own position more forcefully and to develop further his insight concerning the irresolvable tension in the iterative relationship between constitutionalism and democracy. |
Search result: 32 articles
Year 2010 xDiscussion |
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Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 3 2010 |
Keywords | global constitutionalism, legitimacy, human rights, Neil Walker, post-state democracy |
Authors | Morag Goodwin |
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Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 3 2010 |
Keywords | constitutionalism, globalization, democracy, modernity, postnational |
Authors | Neil Walker |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The complexity of the relationship between democracy and modern constitutionalism is revealed by treating democracy as an incomplete ideal. This refers both to the empirical incompleteness of democracy as unable to supply its own terms of application – the internal dimension – and to the normative incompleteness of democracy as guide to good government – the external dimension. Constitutionalism is a necessary response to democratic incompleteness – seeking to realize (the internal dimension) and to supplement and qualify democracy (the external dimension). How democratic incompleteness manifests itself, and how constitutionalism responds to incompleteness evolves and alters, revealing the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy as iterative. The paper concentrates on the iteration emerging from the current globalizing wave. The fact that states are no longer the exclusive sites of democratic authority compounds democratic incompleteness and complicates how constitutionalism responds. Nevertheless, the key role of constitutionalism in addressing the double incompleteness of democracy persists under globalization. This continuity reflects how the deep moral order of political modernity, in particular the emphasis on individualism, equality, collective agency and progress, remains constant while its institutional architecture, including the forms of its commitment to democracy, evolves. Constitutionalism, itself both a basic orientation and a set of design principles for that architecture, remains a necessary support for and supplement to democracy. Yet post-national constitutionalism, even more than its state-centred predecessor, remains contingent upon non-democratic considerations, so reinforcing constitutionalism’s normative and sociological vulnerability. This conclusion challenges two opposing understandings of the constitutionalism of the global age – that which indicts global constitutionalism because of its weakened democratic credentials and that which assumes that these weakened democratic credentials pose no problem for post-national constitutionalism, which may instead thrive through a heightened emphasis on non-democratic values. |
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Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 3 2010 |
Keywords | constitutionalism, globalization, democracy, modernity, postnational |
Authors | Neil Walker |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This reply to critics reinforces and further develops a number of conclusions of the original paper. First, it answers the charge that it is biased in its discussion of the relative standing of constitutionalism and democracy today, tending to take the authority of the former for granted and concentrating its critical attention unduly on the incompleteness of democracy, by arguing that contemporary constitutionalism is deeply dependent upon democracy. Secondly, it reiterates and extends the claim of the original paper that the idea and practice of democracy is unable to supply its own resources in the development of just forms of political organization. Thirdly, it defends its key understanding of the overall relationship between democracy and constitutionalism as a ‘double relationship’, involving both mutual support and mutual tension. A fourth and last point is concerned to demonstrate how the deeper philosophical concerns raised by the author about the shifting relationship between democracy and constitutionalism and the conceptual reframing they prompt are important not just as an explanatory and evaluative window on an evolving configuration of political relations but also as an expression of that evolution, and to indicate how this new conceptual frame might condition how we approach the question of a democracy-sensitive institutional architecture for the global age. |
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Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 3 2010 |
Keywords | international constitutionalism, democracy, international law, fragmentation, international politics |
Authors | Wouter G. Werner |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This paper agrees with Walker on the existence of a tension between democracy and constitutionalism, but questions whether democracy and (international) constitutionalism necessarily depend on each other. While democracy needs constitutionalism on normative grounds, as an empirical matter it may also rest on alternative political structures. Moreover, it is questionable whether democracy is indeed the solution to the incompleteness of international constitutionalism. Traditional forms of democracy do not lend themselves well to transplantation to the international level and could even intensify some problems of international governance. Attempts to democratize international relations should be carried out prudentially, with due regard for possible counterproductive effects. |
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Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty: Extraterrestrial Back Contamination, the U.S. Constitution, and the "Politics" of U.S. Regulatory AuthorityThe 5th Eilene M. Galloway Symposium on Critical Issues in Space Law in Washington D.C., United States, December 2010: "Art. IX of the Outer Space Treaty and Peaceful Purposes: Issues and Implementation" |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 11 2010 |
Authors | G.S. Robinson |
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Possibility of Establishing a New International Space Exploitation AgencyGlobal Lunar Conference in Beijing, China: IISL Session |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 10 2010 |
Authors | D.H. Kim |
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The International Space Station as a "Trading Post in Outer Space": A View from EuropeJoint IAF-IISL Session: "Legal Framework for Collaborative Human Space Missions" |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 8 2010 |
Authors | R.P. Veldhuyzen |
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Report of the Roundtable25th IAA-IISL Scientific-Legal Roundtable in Prague, Tchechoslovakia, 2010: "The New Age of Small Satellite Missions" |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 7 2010 |
Authors | N. Rohner-Willsch |
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Consequences of the French Space Law on Space Operations (FSOA) on CNES' Mission as a Space AgencyRecent Developments in Space Law |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 5 2010 |
Authors | P. Clerc |
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Space Procurement: A European ToolboxRecent Developments in Space Law |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 5 2010 |
Authors | S. Hobe, M. Hofmannova and J. Wouters |
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The Progress of the Regulations-Making Concerning Space Debris Mitigation in ChinaRecent Developments in Space Law |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 5 2010 |
Authors | H. Zhao |
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Recent Challenges Facing the Management of Radio Frequencies and Orbital Resources Used by SatellitesRecent Developments in Space Law |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 5 2010 |
Authors | M. Buzdugan |
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From Guideline to International Treaty for Rule of Law Concerning Mitigation of Space Debris? Implications Arising out from Practices of Space AgenciesThe Current Status of the Rule of Law with Regard to Space Activities |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 4 2010 |
Authors | T. Kosuge and Y. Takeuchi |
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Non-Cooperative Space Debris MitigationThe Current Status of the Rule of Law with Regard to Space Activities |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 4 2010 |
Authors | J.D. Rendleman |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 2 2010 |
Authors | Simon Deakin |
Author's information |
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Space Security and Space Safety: Two Concepts to be DistinguishedLegal Aspects of Space Security |
Journal | International Institute of Space Law, Issue 3 2010 |
Authors | S.A. Kaiser |