Journal article
Positive and Negative Constitutionalism and the Limits of Universalism: A Review Essay
A Stone, LK Weis
Oxford Journal of Legal Studies | OXFORD UNIV PRESS | Published : 2021
DOI: 10.1093/ojls/gqab012
Abstract
In The Principles of Constitutionalism, Nicholas Barber provides a sophisticated yet highly readable introduction to fundamental constitutional principles. At the same time, Barber seeks to reorient constitutional theory scholarship away from a mistaken ‘negative’ understanding of constitutionalism towards a ‘positive’ understanding. This essay examines that argument. We suggest that the idea of ‘positive constitutionalism’ has a weaker and a stronger sense. In its weak form, the argument calls for greater attention to what constitutions enable as well as what they restrict, and thus serves as a welcome reminder of the full potential of constitutional principles. However, it cannot be regard..
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Funding Acknowledgements
A review of Nicholas Barber, The Principles of Constitutionalism (OUP 2018). The authors wish to thank colleagues with whom we discussed this book in the Laureate Program on Comparative Constitutional Law Reading Group at Melbourne Law School, and also those who kindly read and commented upon this review, including: Sarah Biddulph, Anna Dziedzic, William Partlett and Pip Nicholson. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council through Adrienne Stone's Laureate Fellowship.