Dual Dimensions of Rebel Constitutionalism: From Wartime Authority to Postwar Statecraft

This paper develops a two-dimensional analytic framework for studying `rebel constitutionalism` by distinguishing insurgents’ constitution-making processes during active warfare from those in the context of state-building after the end of the armed conflict. The author analyze how insurgent groups use constitutional texts to claim and construct a legitimate foundation for their militarized ideologies, and then translate that ideologically justified military power into a formal, recognized, and politically authoritative dominion, using eight case studies. This paper analyzes the two dimensions predominantly as analytically distinct, rather than as a linear model of movement. The paper asserts the existence of internal governance and external communicative functions of warfare charters in hybrid sovereignty governance, and that ex-combatants use their postwar constitutional engagements to assert power and effect governance changes within the fractal national political order. Despite their commitment to a framework that encompasses rights and inclusiveness, many of these structures ultimately exhibit centralized authoritarianism.