Comparative Constitutional Law as a Social Science? A Hegelian Reaction to Ran Hirschl’s Comparative Matters

Armin von Bogdandy

doi:10.5771/0506-7286-2016-3-278

Contents
- Chapter Expand | CollapseAuthorsPage
- 251–252 Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis 251–252
- 253–312 Abhandlungen / Articles 253–312
  - 253–262 Overcoming obstacles to North-South dialogue: Transformative constitutionalism and the fight against poverty and institutional failure Michaela Hailbronner Michaela Hailbronner 253–262
  - 263–277 In Verteidigung des Lokalen – Odd Details als globalisierungskritische Marker im Verfassungsvergleich Günter Frankenberg Günter Frankenberg 263–277
  - 278–290 Comparative Constitutional Law as a Social Science? A Hegelian Reaction to Ran Hirschl’s Comparative Matters Armin von Bogdandy Armin von Bogdandy 278–290
  - 291–312 Postcolonial Theory and Comparative Law: On the Methodological and Epistemological Benefits to Comparative Law through Postcolonial Theory. Judith Schacherreiter Judith Schacherreiter 291–312
- 313–326 Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews 313–326
  - 313–315 Arnulf Becker Lorca, Mestizo International Law: A Global Intellectual History 1842–1933, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015, 420 pages, £80.00, ISBN 978-0521763387 Marcus M. Payk Marcus M. Payk 313–315
  - 316–326 Mark Tushnet & Madhav Khosla (eds.), Unstable Constitutionalism: Law and Politics in South Asia, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2015, 414 pages, ISBN 9781107068957, £79.99 M.P. Singh M.P. Singh 316–326
- 327–338 Bibliographie / Bibliography 327–338
  - 327–330 AFRIKA /AFRICA 327–330
  - 330–332 ASIEN /ASIA 330–332
  - 332–334 LATEINAMERIKA / LATIN AMERICA 332–334
  - 334–338 NAHER UND MITTLERER OSTEN / NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST 334–338
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VRÜ Verfassung und Recht in Übersee , page 278 - 290

Comparative Constitutional Law as a Social Science? A Hegelian Reaction to Ran Hirschl’s Comparative Matters

Autoren

Armin von Bogdandy

DOI
- doi.org/10.5771/0506-7286-2016-3-278
- ISSN: 0506-7286
- ISSN online: 2941-9603
Abstract

This contribution reviews Ran Hirschl’s book “Comparative Matters” to discuss the discipline of comparative constitutional law. It contrasts his social science approach, informed by comparative politics, with a more lawyerly approach he very much critiques. The latter considers law above all as a phenomenon distinguished by intersubjectivity and normativity, directed at the understanding of normative, validity claiming acts as well as the construction and maintenance of normative meaning. This approach stands in contrast to Hirschl’s approach, which derives from political economy and aims at social-scientific explanation. This contribution questions whether and how causal identification is possible in such complex phenomena as comparative constitutionalism. It also points out that the challenges confronting inner-European comparison are to be distinguished from those of the global comparative law at which Hirschl aims.
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