The Material Study of the Constitutional Order

This paper has been organised in six sections. The first one delineates the material methodology of studying the constitutional order by juxtaposing it to other ‘political’ approaches and it offers a reconstruction of the two legal theories from which it draws its inspiration. Then, the second section will broach the political theory undergirding the material study of constitutional orders with a view to show that social organisation and its legal translation ground the constitutional order. Once the theoretical foundations of the material study have been explained, in the third section the object of the study will be reconstructed by suggesting to look at its constitutive elements. Sections four and five will illustrate this methodology by taking up two examples of contemporary constitutional issues: constitutional change and directive principles. The conclusive section will explore the future development of a specific material angle: the legal organisation of the political economy.