Introduction—Global Constitutionalism from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

Abstract

This issue discusses the process and substance of global constitutionalism from an interdisciplinary perspective. The contributions look at international law and governance through constitutionalist spectacles. These spectacles have normative and empirical-analytical lenses. Seen through the normative lens of lawyers, a constitutionalist reading of current international law is, to some extent, an academic artifact. It has a creative moment, even if it only emphasizes certain characteristics of international law. From a legal perspective, such an intellectual construct is nothing unusual. If we accept the hermeneutic premise that a naked meaning of a text, independent of the reader, does not exist, then the reconstruction of some portions of international law as international constitutional law is just an ordinary hermeneutic exercise. It is a legitimate form of interpretation, not a distortion of norms that are “objectively” something else. Seen through the empirical-analytical lens, the major question is whether there is strong empirical evidence for the emergence of an effective constitution beyond the nation-state. The term “effective constitution” denotes the idea that these constitutional rules make a difference for individuals and are not just cheap talk by politicians. Most analyses of constitutionalism are written by legal scholars. Only recently,