ABSTRACT

Since formal decolonisation in the mid-twentieth century most theories of public law and political formations begin from the presupposition that the field of law and politics is one of sovereign, constitutional states bound together by public international law.1 Yet, over the last fifteen years this widely shared presupposition has been challenged as simply one way of characterising the field of constitutional law and political association among others, and this broader issue of how to characterise the field of law and politics has become a central question to which rival answers have been presented and debated.2