About The Workshop
SW 48– Legality, Legitimacy and the Moral Purpose of the Constitution
Convenors: Dr Dimitrios Kyritsis, Dr Stuart Lakin, Prof. George Letsas, Prof. Matthew Lewans, Prof. Luis Pereira Coutinho
Contact: d.kyritsis@Essex.ac.uk; s.j.lakin@reading.ac.uk
Constitutionalism has long been thought to be an essential ingredient of liberal democracy. Yet, recent trends and political crises have called into question the constitution’s resilience and its future place in our political societies. For example, it is argued that executive dominance renders certain constitutional constraints (e.g. stemming from the separation of powers) obsolete, and that we must therefore sacrifice them for the sake of increased government efficiency.
To address this and similar challenges satisfactorily, we must assess the enduring moral role of constitutions: This is the overarching aim of this workshop. Particular issues that we are keen to explore are:
- Is constitutional law oriented towards justice, the more modest moral value of legitimacy or some other? How is it meant to contribute to any of those values?
- How do constitutional norms and principles shape legality as a condition of lawful government action?
- How does constitutional law mitigate the moral imperfection of the law?
- How can different jurisprudential theories (e.g. Hobbes, Kelsen, Hart, Dworkin) shed light on the moral role of the constitution?
We welcome proposals on any of these or related topics, either from an abstract philosophical perspective or with a narrower focus on a specific aspect of constitutionalism.
Prospective participants are invited to submit abstracts (ca 400 words) to d.kyritsis@Essex.ac.uk and s.j.lakin@reading.ac.uk. To facilitate discussion, we kindly ask participants to circulate a final paper by June 12, 2026.
