Global Constitutionalism: The Social Dimension

Abstract

The chapter argues that the traditional trinity of global constitutionalism can and should be extended to cover a fourth, a social limb. Just as national constitutionalism has embraced the social question, global constitutionalism needs to do the same in times of globalisation fatigue. To this end, global constitutionalism can build on and push further important trends in our post 2015-international legal order, notably the emerging cross-border social responsibility for individuals. The study of inter- and transnational social law standards and entitlements through the lens of global constitutionalism facilitates cross-fertilisation between social and liberal constitutional principles and works against playing those dimensions out against each other in a false competition. By absorbing the social question, global constitutionalism can mitigate its neo-liberal tilt, and it is rescued from being reduced to a project to deepen the power of capital and to extend a market civilization in which the transnational investor is the principal political subject. With such a renovation from within, global constitutionalism can form part of a fresh ‘post-neoliberal imagination’ of international law.