Constitutional Theory: A 25th Anniversary Essay

In this paper, professor Loughlin introduces and dwells on two competing theories of constitutionalism: the "normative" and the "functionalist". His analysis continues with a critical evaluation of limits of the liberal (normative) perspective in this regard. The limits are couched in the form of four tensions: tension between liberalism and democracy; tension between norm and exception; tension between identity and difference; and tension between community and cosmopolis.These tensions, Loughlin argues, could not be analysed properly unless the major and real tension between the two aforesaid theories of constitutionalism are taken into serious consideration. This in turn would make the constitutional discourse a dialectical and fruitful one.