Critical constitutionalism: An inquiry into the past, present, and future

Recent years have seen an increase in scholarly attention given to illiberal constitutional politics in advanced capitalist and democratic states, which have long been deemed the flag carriers of liberal constitutionalism. The illiberal turn presents a significant contrast against the prominent narratives of the late 20th century when liberal democracy was considered to be the most important creation of Western civilisation that all societies and states aspire to become. This article argues that there is an inherent Euro-American centrism embedded in the argument for using liberal constitutionalism as a problem-solving tool for transitionary societies. Centring critical constitutionalism as a crucial intervention point that tests the presuppositions of liberal constitutionalism and its alleged neutrality, objectivity, and rationality, this article will shed light on three significant avenues wherein the use of critical constitutionalism in and of itself is worthy of further scholarly attention. First, by drawing upon Upendra Baxi’s emphasis on conceptualising constitutionalism as a medium to unfold state formative practices, this article will illustrate how critical constitutionalism itself is a venue to re-evaluate and rewrite history. Second, the article proposes to use critical constitutionalism as a medium to describe today’s political power relations in the neoliberal era, through the dominant discourses of global constitutionalism, particularly in the nexus of the global North-South relations. The third and last section of the article considers critical constitutionalism to be a key area wherein an epistemic and political knowledge mobilisation movement is produced as a way of imagining futurities and emphasising organised solidarity movements that can be grounded in the notion of counter-hegemonic globalisation. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU).