Constitutional problems are increasingly crossing legal boundaries and intertwining in the world society since the globalization process that intensified in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The discussion of these themes in their theoretical and practical aspects has been predominantly discussed according to the conceptual models and political perspectives of the hegemonic centers of world society in North America and Western Europe. On the one hand, the imposition and borrowing of constitutions or the migration of constitutional ideals are discussed; on the other hand, the notion of a constitution of world society or a transnational constitutionalism is emphasized. In the present symposium the theme of constitutionalism and democracy crossing legal boundaries will be discussed in the political and epistemological perspectives of the Global South or peripheral modernity, the first emphasizing cultural identities, the second highlighting structural problems of a politically and economically asymmetrical world society. In this context, the negative impacts of colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism of the democratic constitutional countries of the hegemonic centers on the juridical and political life forms and on the social development of the countries of the Global South and the peripheries of world society will be discussed.
This symposium will be convened by STIAS fellow Marcello Neves,Law School, University of Brasília. He is currently in residence working on his project Transdemocracy.
The programme for the symposium can be downloaded here.
