A Sociology of Constitutions: Constitutions and State Legitimacy in Historical-Sociological Perspective

Using a methodology that both analyzes particular constitutional texts and theories and reconstructs their historical evolution, Chris Thornhill examines the social role and legitimating status of constitutions from the first quasi-constitutional documents of medieval Europe, through the classical period of revolutionary constitutionalism, to recent processes of constitutional transition. A Sociology of Constitutions explores the reasons why modern societies require constitutions and constitutional norms and presents a distinctive socio-normative analysis of the constitutional preconditions of political legitimacy.

Author: Chris Thornhill
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 11/29/2012
Pages: 466
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.54lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781107610569

About the Author
Thornhill, Chris: - Chris Thornhill is Professor of European Political Thought and Head of Politics at the University of Glasgow, where his research focuses both on the relations between legal and political theory and legal and political sociology and on processes of state formation and constitution writing in different European societies.