Global Histories of Constitutionalism: Global Exchanges of Ideas and Entanglements, c. 1850s–1930s

A great deal of research has studied the history of constitutionalism as a principle and the stages of its development, but this has focused mainly on Euro-American political thought and its transfer to other parts of the world, leaving the impression that constitutionalism has consisted of more or less defective attempts to imitate Western models. Shifting the reference point for this historical thinking from ‘the West’ to a broader global context encompassing interconnected Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and European experiences, this volume will offer a more inclusive study of constitutionalism and comparatively explore the multiple interpretations and practices of constitutionalism across time and space.

The project “Global Histories of Constitutionalism: Global Exchanges of Ideas and Entanglements, c. 1850s–1930s”, led by Egas Bender de Moniz Bandeira (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory) and Banu Turnaoğlu (Sabancı University/Cambridge University) aims at rethinking the global history of constitutionalism in the period from the mid-nineteenth century up to the 1930s, a critical era of institutional innovation in which constitutions became a well-nigh indispensable element of statehood. It will result in a volume, currently under contract with Cambridge University Press, that unites more than 20 relevant case studies from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, and offers comparative, historical and analytical perspectives on constitutionalism on a global scale. The chapters will be based on and supplemented by a systematic selection of key translated sources.

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