ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a twofold contemporary trend affecting legal systems, as we have inherited them from the 19th and the first part of the 20th century, and as somehow insightfully anticipated by Leonid Pitamic in his construction of (r)evolution in constitutional transitions: in particular, such trend consists in the challenge raised against the prevailing orthodox legal monism, grounded in state law as the exclusive recognised source of law, by the phenomenon, on the one hand, of normative pluralism (the plurality of normative sources stemming from national, international and supranational orders) and, on the other hand, by the other phenomenon of legal pluralism - the plurality of sources of law that are the product of distinct legal traditions (or families), with special regard to religious law. Both challenges are expressed mainly through exceptions to general rules, are consistent with constitutional values of pluralism and necessarily depend on evolutionary judicial interpretation. The challenges are especially relevant in the European legal scenario and radically affect the traditional role of the judicial branch of government, also through the growing importance of constitutional adjudication.
