RT Conference Proceedings
T1 Imperio de la ley, constitucionalismo y democracia
A1 Toscano-Méndez, Manuel
K1 Constitucionalismo
K1 Democracia
AB In the events of September and October of 2017 in Catalonia many voices argued thatvoting and democracy should be above the rule of law and the Constitution. Thesupporters of the independence of Catalonia thus established an opposition between therule of law and the Constitution, on the one hand, and the democratic principle, on theother. In this talk I want to examine briefly if this opposition can be sustained and if itdoes not rest on mistaken assumptions or confusions about the rule of law, the sense ofthe Constitution and the very idea of democracy.In the first place, I would like to frame this opposition in the current diagnoses aboutwhat some authors have called ‘the populist moment’. Populism makes sense as amanifestation of the crisis of liberal democracy. So the same expression of theopposition between democracy and liberal constitutionalism, as some political actorsclaim, should be understood as a significant symptom of the crisis of liberal democracynowadays. Is it possible to think of an illiberal democracy? This would amount to ademocracy without the institutions of the rule of law or constitutional safeguards.In the second part of the talk, I will consider the arguments presented in the famousruling of the Supreme Court of Canada on the question of the secession of Quebec(1998). The sentence offers an incisive and highly relevant examination of theprinciples inspiring a democratic constitutional regime. I will dwell on the analysis ofdemocracy and the constitutionalism principle since it allows us to examine closely howthey relate. As the Canadian judges conclude, it is not possible to understand democracyapart from the rule of law and constitutionalism nor as being above them.
YR 2019
FD 2019-07-19
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/18087
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/18087
LA spa
NO Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 20 ene 2026