ABSTRACT
The transmutation of constitutional conceptuality and the emergence of new sites of constitutional ordering profoundly challenge the world-view upon which constitutional theory has relied to date. This is also reflected in the nature of the academic debates on constitutionalism. From the relatively narrow confinement within national constitutional law discourses, constitutional conceptuality has, in the wake of increased globalisation, crept into almost all legal sub-disciplines as well as into political science, international relations and sociology. Essentially, the ongoing academic debate is centred on the question of whether the — still ongoing — transmutation of constitutionalism marks the triumph of constitutionalism or its demise. From the latter perspective, the attempt to re-invent the constitutional concept merely reflects the increasingly desperate attempts to maintain the constitutional outlook in the face of structural developments which have undermined the all-encompassing unity of state-based constitutional orders. As such, the debate goes to very core of the future of democracy and the rule of law.
