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It is no exaggeration to say that liberal constitutionalism is in crisis. Increasingly attacked as an elitist conspiracy to obstruct the people’s will, the traditional rallying cries of constitutionalism – freedom, toleration, human rights – seem to have lost their potency.
This workshop asks whether our current predicament demands a re-examination of the relationship between the constitutional and the political. Does our constitutional discourse need an injection of political realism? Or would we do better to reassert the fundamental moral values upon which constitutionalism is based? Do political representatives need to attend more to their constituents’ preferences, or is the public perhaps in need of greater civic education? And if toleration and respect for human rights really is in decline, can the ideal of a republican political constitutionalism survive?