Title: Descriptive global constitutionalism and its discontents

Authors: Shivam

Addresses: Patna High Court, Patna, Bihar, India

Abstract: Theorising global constitutionalism seems to have become a popular concern among public international lawyers and scholars of the 21st century. Though constitutionalism is only one of the several approaches to put global regulatory in perspective, its unique appeal is undeniable. Even with the rise of alternative paradigms like global administrative law and global legal pluralism, the global constitutionalist enterprise is far from seeing its end even as it faces a decline in its popularity. A prominent reason for this apparent ambivalence towards this project is the disingenuous invocation of the constitutional vocabulary which in many cases undermines the validity of its underlying premises. Global constitutionalism is much more than a theoretical or rhetorical construct and must be envisioned as an important political doctrine for informing the debates surrounding a just and equitable global order.

Keywords: constitutional law; international law; global constitutionalism; World War II; cold war; constitutionalism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRCS.2025.149278

International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, 2025 Vol.12 No.4, pp.417 - 437

Received: 18 Feb 2024
Accepted: 04 Apr 2024
Published online: 22 Oct 2025 *

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