Constitutions without Constitutionalism

Abstract

Every matured legal system should aspire to embrace the principle of constitutionalism. It represents a sound hope for a government with justiciable limits on the exercise of legal power. On that account, a mockery of this idea by political actors is a danger to legal restraints on the exercise of power and a potential threat or death to the ideals of human rights. While this clamor for the utility of constitutionalism in the life of states lingers on, how such an ideal is to be conceived and provided for by the legal rules of states remains a fertile area for normative questions. For instance, will the existence of a written constitution in a given state presuppose the existence of constitutionalism in that state? Differently put, does the idea of constitutionalism necessarily emanates from the idea of a written constitution? This paper takes the view that the mere existence of a written constitution does not necessarily signal the existence of the principle of constitutionalism in that state.

KEYWORDS: Constitution, Constitutionalism, Rule of Law, Judicial Review, Human Rights, Separation of Powers, Judicial Independence, Democracy, Limited Government.

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/148-02

Publication date: June 28^th 2025