The Political Dimension of Constitutional Law

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. Introduction

   • Miguel Nogueira de Brito, Luís Pereira Coutinho

   Pages 1-3

3. Fundamental Law

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 5-5

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   2. Fundamental Law

      • Martin Loughlin

      Pages 7-21

   3. Expanding Legality and Losing Fundamental Law: On Martin Loughlin’s Dualist Conception of Public Law

      • Miguel Nogueira de Brito

      Pages 23-49

4. A Political-Theological Dimension

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51

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   2. Decision and Legal Interpretation

      • Paul W. Kahn

      Pages 53-71

   3. An Alternative Political Theology: The Negative and Anticipatory Significance of the Constitutive Concepts of Constitutional Law

      • Luís Pereira Coutinho

      Pages 73-88

5. Political Constitutional Law

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89

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   2. Informal Constitutional Change and Political Law

      • Manon Altwegg-Boussac

      Pages 91-104

   3. “Liquid Constitutions” and Their Informal Changes

      • Carlos Blanco de Morais

      Pages 105-137

6. The Problem of European “Constitutional Law”

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139

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   2. A Functional Alternative to Political Right: Social Contract Without a People

      • Massimo La Torre

      Pages 141-157

   3. In Capital We Trust: The Eurozone: A Congeries of Material Norms Without a Constitution?

      • Agustín José Menéndez

      Pages 159-180

   4. The Different Faces of Politics: Economic Governance and European Democracy

      • Pedro Lomba

      Pages 181-189

This book discusses in what sense constitutional law has a political dimension, raising the question whether constitutional law is fundamentally political as to its validity, terms of its origin, conceptual structure and/or corresponding practice. It also poses the question whether that dimension is a political-theological dimension. A positive answer to these questions challenges the prevailing view that constitutional law is to be conceived strictly as law, moreover as written law, approved at a certain point in history by a particular power and interpreted as any other law by the judiciary. The essays included in this book, written by leading scholars in constitutional theory – including Martin Loughlin, Paul Kahn, Manon Altwegg-Boussac and Massimo La Torre – address these questions in a timely and original way.

• Fundamental law
• Constituionalism
• Political law
• Political theology
• Constitutional interpretation
• Constitutional change
• European law
• european union politics

• School of Law, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

  Miguel Nogueira de Brito, Luís Pereira Coutinho

Miguel Nogueira de Brito is Associate Professor at the University of Lisbon’s School of Law and Coordinator for Constitutional Law at the Lisbon Centre for Research in Constitutional Law. His main research interests are Constitutional Law and Political Theory. His main works are “A Constituição Constituinte” and “A Justificação da Propriedade Privada numa Democracia Constitucional”.

Luís Pereira Coutinho is Associate Professor at the University of Lisbon’s School of Law. His research interests are Constitutional Law and Political Theory. His main works are “A Autoridade Moral da Constituição” and “Teoria dos Regimes Políticos”. He edited “Eichmann and Jerusalem: 50 years after” and “Judicial Activism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the American and European Experiences”, the latter with Springer.

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