The Prospects of 21st Century Constitutionalism

The main aim of this article is not to define whether different levels or layers of governance, national or international, have a 'constitution', or amount to one, and what the minimal content of the normative concept of 'constitution' should be. Rather, the authors focus on the necessary relations and functions of different and existing layers of governance, whatever their nature and quality, considered as an overall complex. Allocating powers among and between these layers, establishing adequate safeguards on different levels of governance — whether or not termed a Constitution - and defining the relationship and interaction between these layers, for example in the field of human rights protection or market access rights, is one of the main tasks constitutionalism will have to achieve in this century.