ABSTRACT
The notion of ‘constitution’ was discussed incidentally in Chapter 5 but was not the main focus of that chapter. This chapter builds upon that discussion; if we were bound to discuss matters only in their proper place we should have delayed introducing constitutional questions. Ideally, however, Chapters 5 and 6 ought to be read simultaneously, since constitution has a positive and a negative quality – the two Stufenbauten discussed in Section 5.5.2 – which must always be considered together. On the other hand, ‘conflict of norms’ and ‘sources of law’ are two topics sufficiently diverse and on different levels of abstraction to demand separate treatment. Therefore, this chapter will discuss the notion of ‘sources’ and ‘constitution’ in international law, but where appropriate will merely build upon Section 5.5.
