“Constitutional Technicity”: Displacing Politics through Expert Knowledge

Abstract

In the decades following the end of the Cold War, the process of producing state constitutions has transformed into a veritable industry. This commentary considers contemporary practices of constitution-making as a site for critical reflection. It takes up the provision of “expert” advice in constitution-making processes in relation to three tropes of how these processes are conceived. As an attempt at diagnosing the constitution-making present, this commentary focuses on constitutional “technicity,” though aspects of what I term constitutional “romanticism” and “civility” continue to inform this technical turn.