ABSTRACT
This chapter argues, however, that constitutions not only 'constitute' government for particular societies, mapping structures of authority and normative relationships between various arms and agencies of government, as well as their specific powers, responsibilities and jurisdictional limits. They also typically contribute to 'constitute', in a certain sense, the governed society itself, and this contribution is one of their most important aspects. The chapter focuses on comparisons between British and US constitutional structures, is to suggest that this view is too narrow. The particular legal form of constitutional ideas may be much less significant than the communicated ideas themselves. And the significance of what is communicated may often lie in its ambiguity rather than in the kind of interpretive clarity which lawyers try to find in law. Indeed constitutional communication may be impossible to confine within specific modem legal forms with which lawyers typically feel at ease.
