Is a constitution a set of legal rules from which officials obtain guidance for their own conduct and for assessing the conduct of others; or is it the result of ever-negotiable settlements employed to sustain peaceful cooperation? Those who answer the first question affirmatively are considered to be normativists; those who opt for the second...
Can we escape Normativism in Public Law?
Public Law (as any other field of law) tries to achieve certain goals by certain orders (norms). Norms, thus, have an important role to play in regulating und limiting state activities especially in democratic states with a rule of law. Obligations arising from these norms are expressed in fundamental rights as well as in the...
EU Unilateralism and the Development of International Law
Much has been made of the US’ recent withdrawal from leadership in multilateral institutions. This is often contrasted with the approach of the European Union. The Treaties commit the EU to seek solutions to international problems through multilateral means, and the EU has sought to influence the development of international law via multilateral institutions. Yet...
Normativist Resistance
Constitutionalism properly so called is connected to a commitment to to self-government of free and equals through law. As such it is tied not only to a distinctive normative conception of public law, but also grounds justifications for resistance and revolution.
The Constitution as an Obstacle
The binary distinction between “Normativism“ and “Anti-Normativism“ may fall short of serving as a stable foundation upon which the character of constitutional law is to be assessed. While an appealing heuristic , it often oversimplifies rather complex discussions underlying the question as to the specific properties of rules and ruleness, of power and authority on...
The Limits of Normative Constitutionalism
Global constitutionalism is one of the outstanding accomplishments of normative constitutional theory. The most successful instantiations of normative constitutional theories of global constitutionalism have taken up perspectives that seemed potentially incompatible: legal pluralism and the sociology of constitutions. The normative case for global constitutionalism as the arguments given in support of global constitutionalism are very...