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Chapter
Wille zur Verfassung, or the constitutional state in Europe
DOI link for Wille zur Verfassung, or the constitutional state in Europe
Wille zur Verfassung, or the constitutional state in Europe book
Wille zur Verfassung, or the constitutional state in Europe
DOI link for Wille zur Verfassung, or the constitutional state in Europe
Wille zur Verfassung, or the constitutional state in Europe book
ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will consider and criticize the implicit normative implications that the ‘classical’ positivistic conceptions of law have for our understanding of constitutionalism. By ‘classical’ positivistic conceptions of law, I refer to the most outstanding positivist legal theories of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the kind of Austin, Gerber, Laband, Jellinek or Santi Romano. Such authors played a major role in the theoretical development of law in Europe, especially in public law. Their thought can still be said to have a considerable influence on the way in which law is conceived and analysed in Europe. A critical scrutiny of the central tenets of their theories is thus quite pertinent at the very time at which a constitution is being written for the European Union.1 This is so because the way in which law is conceptualized has a major feedback on the critical standards applied to constitution-making processes and to their outcomes, that is, the actual rights and values it positivizes. Therefore, what conception of European law is sustained has a direct impact on how the European constitution-making process and the eventual European constitution are/will be assessed.