http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
The subject of this book is the social and political meaning of constitutional texts to the detriment of their legal concretization. In other words, it focuses on the discrepancy between the hypertrophically symbolic function of constitutions and their insufficient legal concretization. It offers a critical counterpoint to constitutional theory that treats constitutional texts as a panacea to solving political, legal, and social problems. The symbolic constitutionalization is approached in a comprehensive perspective and in contrast to certain premises of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory in regard to law and constitution in the world society. Chapter 1 sets out the debate about symbolic legislation. Chapter 2 explains the notion of symbolic constitutionalization as a problem embracing the whole legal system. Chapter 3 approaches the issue in terms of allopoiesis of law, characterizing it primarily as a problem in peripheral modernity and referring to the Brazilian experience. The final chapter discusses the tendency to a symbolic constitutionalization of world society in the scope of a paradoxical peripheralization of the center.
Marcelo Neves ; translated by Kevin Mundy.