Constitutionalism and Democracy
LAWS6303
The unit provides a theoretical analysis of constitutionalism and with it the relation of law and democracy. At the intersection of law and politics, the ambiguities with which the concept of constitutionalism is fraught attest to the tensions it contains: of law's imperative to order and to stabilise expectations in social life on the one hand, and the inherent dynamism and 'restlessness' of the political on the other. Is the idea of a constitutional dialogue, or the idea of the 'co-originality of law and democracy' ways to make sense of the tensions? What happens when constitutionalism is 'uploaded' to the transnational level, where increasingly the language of 'constitutional pluralism' is called on to accommodate it? And if the notion of 'constituent power' has always been a key part of our understanding of the meaning of the 'constitutional' and the stakes associated with it, what has that concept meant for the radical tradition of constitutional thinking, and what does it mean to invoke that concept today?
Unit of study details
Unit of study level: Postgraduate
Credit points: 6
Commencing semesters: 108
Further unit of study information
Unit of study handbook: LAWS6303
Costs and scholarships information: Costs and Scholarships
Final dates to withdraw from units of study: Census Dates
Available for study abroad and exchange: No