Project Description

The project analysed non-liberal conceptualizations of social transformation and their relationship to the liberal script in India. It focused on the concept of transformative constitutionalism (TC) as a central site for the articulation of a non-liberal vision of (future) order. TC, which has started to play a major role in Indian constitutionalism in the past years, was our entry point to investigate an alternative to the liberal script that is non-liberal rather than illiberal.

India provides a particularly rich example to study these questions. While the Indian Constitution is based on many ideas of the liberal script (such representative democracy, rule of law, and individual rights), it also pronounces an ambitious transformative agenda aimed at addressing social and economic inequalities. At the same time, the Indian state inherited many authoritarian centralized instruments from colonial rule. The different ‘faces’ of the Indian Constitution have found powerful advocates throughout various phases of its history.

Research Questions

Our research focused on the conceptual distinctiveness and the everyday life of TC in India. It examined various contexts—such as Supreme Court case law, legal NGOs, and involvement in UN discussions—to investigate how liberal constitutionalism was used, amended, indigenized or reverted.

Research Approach

The project was not a single-output endeavour but one in which several collaborators worked within a unified conceptual framework (TC). The research approach was therefore manifold and varied depending on the respective project: the two PhD studies employed a legal theory and legal anthropology approach focusing respectively on the Supreme Court and legal NGOs, while the principal investigators (PIs) concentrated on intellectual and constitutional history. Our project collectively combined top-down and bottom-up approaches and entirely used qualitative methods, including intellectual and constitutional history, and anthropological studies.

Relation to the Liberal Script

Constitutionalism is a central component of the liberal script, in fact the binding normative explication of liberalism in many contexts. Understanding how constitutionalism's Western origins intersect with its evolution in the Non-Western world is crucial for analysing contestations in the Global South. This project integrated Non-Western perspectives and positions into the conceptualization of the liberal script and its contestations.

Core Findings

We observed a unique conglomerate of influences and developments in Indian constitutionalism. Liberal constitutionalism was not an imposed exogenous influence but evolved and changed deliberately into what is often referred to as transformative constitutionalism. This nonetheless reacts to colonialism both in rhetoric and content. The shifting case law of the Supreme Court and the efforts of legal NGOs promoting ideals of the ‘good citizen’ through pathways to transparency and engaged citizenship underline this dynamic.

Academic Innovations

This project incorporated a diverse range of voices and approaches, which consisted in integrating doctrinal case-analysis and legal anthropological analysis within the frame of intellectual history. This interdisciplinary methodology offered a novel perspective on constitutionalism in India, highlighting its unique endogenous development. It demonstrated how Indian constitutionalism both draws upon and contests liberal ideas, further developing them in the local context.

Publications

Dann, Philipp 2020: Editorial: Constitutional Resilience and the Laws of Democracy in India, Verfassung und Recht in Übersee 53: 355-357.

Dann, Philipp / Riegner, Michael / Bönnemann, Maxim (eds.) 2020: The Global South and Comparative Constitutional Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dann, Philipp / Riegner, Michael / Bönnemann, Maxim 2020: The Southern Turn in Comparative Constitutional Law. An Introduction, in: Dann, Philipp / Riegner, Michael / Bönnemann, Maxim (eds.): The Global South and Comparative Constitutional Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-38.

Dann, Philipp / Thiruvengadam, Arun K. 2021: Comparing Constitutional Democracy in the European Union and India. An Introduction, in: Dann, Philipp / Thiruvengadam, Arun K. (eds.): Democratic Constitutionalism in India and the European Union Comparing the Law of Democracy in Continental Polities, Camberley Surrey: Edward Elgar, 1-41.

Dann, Philipp / Thiruvengadam, Arun K. (eds.) 2021: Democratic Constitutionalism in India and the European Union. Comparing the Law of Democracy in Continental Polities, Camberley Surrey: Edward Elgar.

Dann, Philipp 2022: Liberal Constitutionalism and Postcolonialism in the Global South and Beyond: On Liberalism as an Open Source and the Insights of Decolonial Critiques, International Journal of Constitutional Law 20(1): 1-7.

Dann, Philipp 2023: Constitutional Resilience and Political Constitutionalism in South Asia and beyond: An Epilogue, in: Jhaveri, Swati / Khaitan, Tarunabh / Samaratne, Dinesha (eds.): Constitutional Resilience beyond Courts, Hart Publishing, 459-468.

Dann, Philipp 2023: Southern turn, Northern implications: rethinking the meaning of colonial legacies for Comparative Constitutional Studies, Comparative Constitutional Studies 1(2): 174-196.