Introduction [Sociology of Constitutions: A Paradoxical Perspective]

The fundamental concept of the constitution is changing rapidly. On the basis of the general formula one state, one constitution, the constitution used to be seen as the sole and indisputable mother of the legal order, as the ‘norm of the norms’, on which the individual legal decisions could ultimately be grounded, as the benchmark for sustainable and coherent solutions to the problems of a differentiated society, and as a safe harbour, where the certainty of law could be protected successfully. Due to its privileged relations with civil society on the one side, and with political power on the other, the constitution was consequently used in many convergent ways: by judges as the main tool for granting identity to their legal decisions, by political actors as the main criterion for defining the limits of their own legal interventions, and by the public as the main institutionalised norm for defending the abstract recognition of new rights or the elimination of previous constraints.