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7 - The Crisis in, and of, Constitutional Identity

from Part I - Foundations, Theory, and Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

By
Upendra Baxi
Edited by
Ran Hirschl  and
Yaniv Roznai
Ran Hirschl
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Yaniv Roznai
Affiliation:
Reichman University, Israel
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Summary

This conversation will address the crisis in the concept of constitutional identity, a concept which has been subtly articulated by Gary J Jacobsohn. Conceiving ‘crisis’ as ‘disharmonies’, he speaks of constitutional ‘identity’ in a dialectical relation as a culturally embedded core of varied practices of identification. The preliminary issue is whether, and how, the national and constitutional identity coincide. Second, we consider the matter of identity entrepreneurs and, third, examine the thesis of ‘abuse of constitutional identity’ and the dialectics of robustness and fragility of/in the identity of constitution. Finally, we attend briefly to some questions of related concerns raised by the distinction between ‘We, the people’ and ‘We, the nations’, in relation to the notions of identity.

Keywords

constitutionalismidentitypeopleinclusionpluralism
Type
Chapter
Information
Deciphering the Genome of Constitutionalism
The Foundations and Future of Constitutional Identity
 , pp. 89 - 98
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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