The Qur'an and the Constitution
The Quran and the Constitution are mutually supportive supreme texts; one does not negate the other. Numerous forms of government, cultural traditions, and economic systems are compatible with both supreme texts. Muslim nations are free to promulgate specific constitutions that reflect their social, political, and economic preferences rooted in history and culture. The specific constitution must reflect the conscience of the nation, for constitutions that fail to do so are vulnerable to amendment, even revolutionary replacement. Because the human condition is constantly evolving, the Quran, though a permanent divine text immune to alteration or amendment, is amenable to the evolutionary calls of believers. Each generation of Muslims is free to understand the Quran for meeting its needs. Interpreters as believers, however, summon the luminosity of faith while analyzing the Word of God and refrain from deforming the meaning of the divine text. They should not project personal agendas into the meaning of the Quran as do some interpreters of the Constitution.
The Is and the Ought of International Constitutionalism: How Far Have We Come on Habermas's Road to a “Well-Considered Constitutionalization of International Law”?
In recent years, a growing chorus of publicists – lawyers, philosophers, political scientists and others – has discussed and often advocated the “constitutionalization” of international law, i.e. the gradual transformation of the whole or at least parts of international law into a world constitution. These “constitutionalists,” many of them having a German background, point to various recent phenomena such as international legal norms with erga omnes effects and peremptory norms (jus cogens) which seem to establish a hierarchical order of global values, going far beyond the classical inter-State relationships of coexistence and synallagmatic exchange. They further list compulsory judicial or quasi-judicial dispute settlement mechanisms (e.g., in the WTO). The constitutionalists put particular emphasis on the human rights revolution since 1945 and the rise of international criminal law that is administered by various international criminal tribunals – phenomena which have transformed individuals into (partial) subjects of international law alongside the states.
The prospects of 21st Century constitutionalism
The main aim of this article is not to define whether different levels or layers of governance, national or international, have a 'constitution', or amount to one, and what the minimal content of the normative concept of 'constitution' should be. Rather, the authors focus on the necessary relations and functions of different and existing layers of governance, whatever their nature and quality, considered as an overall complex. Allocating powers among and between these layers, establishing adequate safeguards on different levels of governance — whether or not termed a Constitution - and defining the relationship and interaction between these layers, for example in the field of human rights protection or market access rights, is one of the main tasks constitutionalism will have to achieve in this century.