—Berihun Adugna Gebeye, Assistant Professor, UCL Faculty of Laws and Book Review Editor, Constitutional Studies
The International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) and the Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP) have launched a new journal: Constitutional Studies (CS). The journal publishes work from a variety of disciplines addressing the theory and practice of constitutional government worldwide.
In introducing the journal, Tom Ginsburg (Co-Director of the CCP) and Helle Krunke (President of the IACL) asked: “Why, you might ask, do we need another journal in this field? After all, there are several excellent ones already in publication.” Their answer was that ‘what Ran Hirschl called the Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law is far from over. Even in an era of democratic backsliding, there continue to be major developments in a range of jurisdictions that bear analysis and scrutiny… [and] there is much more room for scholarly collaboration across national and regional academies.’
CS takes these rationales seriously and joins the family of (comparative) constitutional law journals with an ambitious vision of making scientific knowledge accessible to everyone everywhere, breaking down linguistic, geographical, and economic barriers. Authors can currently submit their manuscripts in English, French, or Spanish, and the journal plans to accept submissions in Arabic, Mandarin, and Russian in the future. Moreover, in addition to the above six languages, authors can submit manuscripts in any of the languages spoken by the Editorial Team, which number around 31. CS is an entirely open-access, online journal. It does not charge authors any fees for publishing their work or readers for accessing it.
Standing on the shoulders of the IACL and CCP, CS has a clear mission: to democratize academic publishing, build an inclusive global community of scholars and practitioners, and create a high-quality world archive for mutual learning about the theory and practice of constitutional government.
We know that liberal democratic constitutionalism is under stress worldwide. Yet, the language of constitutions and the grammar of constitutionalism are well and alive. It is our task, as employees of knowledge institutions, to interpret and decode such a language and grammar with deep attention to context and share our findings. The first relaunch issue of CS does precisely this: it explores the state of the field of constitutional studies in regions and disciplines worldwide.
Markus Böckenförde, in his article ‘(Unconstitutional) Constitutional Amendments in Africa: Mapping the Field’, identifies the distinctive design patterns relevant to debates on unconstitutional constitutional amendments in Africa and considers the interpretative approaches of courts with a focus on Benin and Kenya.
Zaid Al-Ali, in his article ‘The Arab Region 15 Years after the Uprising: Regression, Conflict, and Residual Hope’, discusses constitutional developments in the region since 2011, with a focus on constitutional reform efforts in Tunisia and Syria. He emphasizes the importance of addressing historical legacies and societal divisions in achieving successful reform.
Jiunn-rong Yeh and Wen-Chen Chang, in their article ‘Changing Dynamics of Constitutional Progress and Regression in Asia: Interplay of Electoral, Civic, and Judicial Constitutionalism’, identify and discuss the defining features of recent constitutional changes and the underlying forces driving constitutional progress or regression in Asia with a focus on constitutional revisions and electoral politics.
Silvia Suteu, in her article, ‘Democratic Backsliding and Comparative Constitutional Soul-Searching in Europe’, reveals the methodological and normative assumptions and blind spots and their consequences for the project of and scholarship on restoring democratic constitutionalism in Europe.
Roberto Gargarella, in his article, ‘The ‘Democratic Problem’ in Latin America and the ‘Narrow Suit’ of Constitutionalism’, examines what he calls the ‘democratic problem’ in Latin America and shows how the development of institutional frameworks opposed to self-government is to blame for this.
Ran Hirschl, in his article, ‘Comparative Constitutional Inquiry: The North American Angle’, reflects on the state of comparative constitutional inquiry in North America and assesses the increasingly divergent trends of the United States and Canada in the past few decades and their consequences for comparative constitutional law and theory.
Elisa Arcioni and Kirsty Gover, in their article, ‘Can Private International Law Methods Facilitate Indigenous-Settler Legal Pluralism?: Possibilities in Australia and Aotearoa’, examine how the tools and methods of private international law could mediate the dynamic interactions between indigenous law and settler laws in Australia and New Zealand.
Marie-Joëlle Zahar, in her article, ‘Constitutional Reforms and Peace Processes: An Odd Couple?’, asks whether constitutional reforms go well with peace processes, and answers that only genuine inclusivity could prevent post-conflict constitutions from becoming an extension of peace agreements, drawing from the experiences of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kenya, Lebanon, and Sudan.
Alexei Trochev and Alisher Juzgenbayev, in their article, ‘Diverging Trajectories of Post-Soviet Constitutional Courts’, explore the varied role of constitutional courts as credible forums for constitutional debate and decision-making in the former non-Baltic Soviet republics.
The special issue also contains Dispatches from Practice, Constitutional Law and Culture, and Book Reviews. Dispatches from Practice features an Interview with Baroness Brenda Marjorie Hale of the United Kingdom and a contribution by Cheryl Saunders, who share their views on judging and external constitutional assistance in constitution-making, respectively. Nong Putachad explains the art behind the cover design of Hart’s Constitutional Systems of the World series.
Zoltán Pozsár-Szentmiklósy reviews Silvia Suteu’s book ‘Eternity Clauses in Democratic Constitutionalism’, and Chun-Yuan Lin writes a review essay on ‘Gender, Sexuality, and Constitutionalism in Asia’ edited by Wen-Chen Chang, Kelley Loper, Mara Malagodi, and Ruth Rubio Marin.
The special issue of CS will enhance our understanding of constitutions, their operating circumstances, and their role across various regime types, national boundaries, and continents. We hope that CS will become a global forum for constitutional scholarship, and that scholars and practitioners will join us in this crucial mission as contributors and reviewers.
Suggested citation: Berihun Adugna Gebeye, The Relaunch of Constitutional Studies, Int’l J. Const. L. Blog, Jul. 8, 2025, at: http://www.iconnectblog.com/the-relaunch-of-constitutional-studies/
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