Chairs
• Zoltán Szente szente.zoltan@tk.hu
• Han Zhai hzhai@hust.edu.cn
• Yang Qiu yang.qiu@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

Interweaving History, Memories and Contemporary Constitutional Law: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue

This workshop proposes an interdisciplinary discussion on constitutional law, history, and memory. The relationship between historical experience and constitutional law remains a central question for scholars and practitioners alike. Historical events, institutions, and political traditions continue to shape constitutional interpretation, the design of institutions, and the protection of fundamental rights in modern democratic and non-democratic states.

Time, in this sense, may act as friend or foe, or perhaps both. With the evolution of time, specific historical meanings, emotions, or sentiments may be lost. Yet, the constitutional connection to the past—or rather, the claim thereof—could be reinforced or ‘regenerated’ through a series of constitutional re-interpretations and reforms.

The national written constitution, then, may be viewed as the site, or even the battlefield, of memories. It might be argued that constitutions were founded upon such ‘epics’—they attempt to harness a common understanding of the past and often inform us of the objectives, values, and moral principles of our community. Furthermore, they may constrain the type and nature of constitutional arguments that one can advance (not only in courts but also in the streets and other public spaces) and advise on the institutions that states need to establish, as well as their governing principles.

This workshop invites scholars from constitutional law, history, and social science to explore how historical experiences influence contemporary understandings of constitutionalism, constitutional identity, and statehood, and subsequently, how constitutions (broadly defined) sustain a particular collective memory of the past. Moreover, what are the means that members of communities employ to reinforce, change, or even subvert a particular understanding of the past that is entrenched in constitutions? Possible answers will lead us to the fundamental enquiry of this workshop: how comparative perspectives illuminate similarities and divergences in the historical underpinnings of constitutions.

As an interdisciplinary workshop, the convenors strongly encourage submissions across various disciplines (e.g., history, politics, sociology, social anthropology, cultural heritage, and literature) and the utilisation of methodologies that extend beyond traditional doctrinal methods. We also welcome projects that investigate and compare case studies focused on the Global South.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Climate Justice and collective memories.

How historical experiences influence contemporary understandings of constitutionalism, constitutional identity, and statehood.

The role that history, together with historical memories, plays in constitutional adjudication and judicial reasoning.

The normative power of constitutional memories.

Historical memories involved in constitutional interpretation (e.g., the remnants of communist memories in the constitutional judgements of former USSR states; the ways in which the legacy of authoritarianism, colonialism, or transition shapes the interpretation of constitutional norms; and the selection and neglect of memories in constitutional arguments).

Comparison of war memories in post-WWII constitutions.

The legal re-allocation of authoritarian memories during Transitional Justice.

‘Memory wars’ in constitutional drafting and constitutional changes.

Changing collective memories towards democratic decline.

Temporality and eternity within written constitutions.