Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies Volume 16 Issue 1 Article 5 Winter 2006 Theocratic Constitutionalism: An Introduction to a New Global Legal Ordering Larry Catá Backer Coalition for Peace and Ethics Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, International Law Commons, and the Law and Politics Commons Recommended Citation Backer, Larry Catá (2006) "Theocratic Constitutionalism: An Introduction to a New Global Legal Ordering," Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies: Vol. 16 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol16/iss1/5 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Theocratic Constitutionalism: An Introduction to a New Global Legal Ordering LARRY CATA BACKER* ABSTRACT The twentieth century has seen afundamentalshift in the ways in which constitu- tions are understood. By the middle of the twentieth century, a new sort of constitu- tionalism emerged, rejecting the idea of the legitimacy of every form of political selfconstitution. The centralassumptions ofthis new constitutionalism were grounded in the belief that not all constitutionswere legitimate,and that legitimate constitutions shared a number of universal common characteristics.These common characteristics were both procedural (againstarbitrary use of state power) and substantive (limiting the sorts ofpolicy choices states could make in constituting its government and exercis- ing governancepower).