Challenges in Comparative Constitutional Law Studies: Between Globalization and Constitutional Tradition.

Abstract

In the last decades, we have witnessed the renaissance of Comparative Constitutional law as field of research. Despite such a spread, the methodological foundations and the ultimate ratio of Constitutional comparative law are still debated among scholars, divided along many different methodological approaches. This article starts from the definition of the Comparative Constitutional law given by one of the most prominent comparative constitutional law scholars in Italy, prof. Giovanni Bognetti, who, in his seminal book “Introduzione al diritto costituzionale comparato” defines comparative constitutional law as the “main joining ring between the historical knowledge of the modern law and the history of the humankind in general and of its various civil realizations”. Comparative constitutional law is in other words a kind of mirror of the “competing vision of who we are and who we wish to be as a political community” (Hirschl), reflecting the structural tension between universalism and particularism, globalisation and constitutional tradition. Starting from this perspective the article aims at addressing the main contemporary methodological challenges faced by the studies of Comparative constitutional law. It will focus on 2 main strands: 1. The relationship between globalization (which promotes the migration of constitutional ideas) and the roots of constitutional identity. 2. The relationship between comparative constitutional studies and other scientific disciplines, such as political science, anthropology, sociology, history. The article argues that contemporary comparative constitutional studies should address these challenges: 1) integrating the classical “horizontal” comparative method with a vertical one – regarding the international and supranational influences on constitutional settings – and, 2) fostering an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account the perspective of the social sciences.