Constitutional reforms in the modern world

This article formulates the task of creating a constitutional reform theory that would make it possible to build up scientifically substantiated forecasts of how the constitutional–legal picture of the world will be developing. The necessity to systematize the experience of constitutional reforms; to reveal the causes, methods, and procedures of their implementation; and to classify and establish essential characteristics of the newest constitutional transformations in the context of the increased influence of globalization processes on national law systems and the large-scale economic, political, and other transformations is proved. The author identifies key criteria that make it possible to consider constitutional changes as constitutional reform and reveals the dialectics of the relation of constitutional reform and constitutional sustainability and stability. Special attention is paid to assessing constitutional reform from the point of view of legality and legitimacy. A wide approach is proposed to the definition of constitutional reform as not only a legal but also sociopolitical process, which requires applying methods and means of various branches of knowledge.