Constitutional but not constitutionalism

Constitutionalism’s basis in free and equal persons entails that persons exist prior to political authority, and this is reflected in the notion of constitutional rights. Since 1945, international human rights law, articulating into binding norms the core of the idea of constitutionalism, has, through its system of individual rights brought international law and constitutional law into closer normative proximity. In terms of the development of constitutionalism and constitutional developments guided by constitutionalism, there has been a move towards an expansion of the notion of equality, most clearly seen in the development of international human rights law. Equal liberty is the acknowledgment of persons as equal with respect to having constitutional rights. With the emergence of the idea of constitutionalism, equality became a foundational value in constitutional context. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.