La «Constitución generacional» en el pensamiento revolucionario francés
Does a Constitution impose obligations on those generations that follow the one that approved it? Should each generation pass its own Constitution? These questions were discussed by the French National Assembly during the elaboration of both the Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen and th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Spanish |
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2019
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| Online Access: | https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/oaiart?codigo=7063482 |
| Source: | Revista de estudios políticos, ISSN 0048-7694, Nº 185, 2019, pags. 45-74 |
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Does a Constitution impose obligations on those generations that follow the one that approved it? Should each generation pass its own Constitution? These questions were discussed by the French National Assembly during the elaboration of both the Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen and the 1791 Constitution. Some precedents can be found in both English political thought and in the American Revolution. In fact, the core of the debate was the same in those countries: the opposition between an historical Constitution (which was inherited by each generation, unable to create a new one) and a formal Constitution (which could be created as the will of the people). But among French revolutionaries the debate was more intense, due to the theory of “constituent power”. The dilemma was whether current constituent power could force future generations to periodically renew the Constitution? In other words, could that power prevent the current generation (that is, the “living sovereign”) from changing the Constitution until a certain future deadline? |
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