Part V Meanings/Textures, Ch.35 Constitutional Identity

‘Constitutional identity’ is an essentially contested concept as there is no agreement over what it means or refers to.1 The roots of constitutional identity go back to Aristotle who insisted that the identity of a state did not depend on its physical characteristics, but on its constitution.2 Placed in their contemporary setting, conceptions of constitutional identity range from focus on the actual features and provisions of a constitution—for example, does it establish a presidential or parliamentary system, a unitary or federal state—to the relation between the...