ABSTRACT

In recent years there has been increasing interest in the study of the boundary space between constitutional law and legislation from scholars working within the tradition of legal constitutionalism. In navigating this conceptual space, it makes sense to look to political constitutionalism for resources. Interrogating and negotiating the boundaries between constitutional law and legislation is part and parcel of political constitutionalism: within that tradition all constitutional law is (and always has been) at the same time legislation. By contrast, the same task presents new challenges for the tradition of legal constitutionalism. Entertaining the possibility that certain legislation has constitutional status of some kind appears to require reimagining the supremacy that constitutional law is thought to have over legislation. Indeed, it appears to require rethinking what makes constitutional law ‘constitutional’—a matter often taken for granted in the presence of an entrenched, master text (‘written’) constitution.