Constitutionalism and the Global South

Critical discussions have re-emerged in comparative constitutional law, amongst both practitioners and scholars, on the enduring impact of empire and other forms of transnational hegemony on theory and practice. At the heart of these discussions is the need to understand jurisdictions broadly described as the Global South. For some time, the study of constitutionalism has been shaped primarily by the experiences of a relatively small number of jurisdictions. Experiences of most jurisdictions of the Global South often are analysed from that limited perspective. Experiences in constitutional governance that are contrary to dominant understandings of constitutionalism, are not adequately examined, may be subject to misinterpretation or are treated as transgressions. This approach has limited the capacity of the field to deal with real life challenges, has given rise to false expectations and failed to respond to emerging trends. A related difficulty concerns recognition and representation: how the experiences of these jurisdictions should be represented and who should represent them.