DI ENRICO CORALI
ABSTRACT – Phenomenology of constituent power. The unquestioned assumption from which all theories around the relations between constituent and constituted powers start is that these powers are two definite and separate historical realities, one chronologically antecedent to the other and between them in a cause-and-effect relationship (i.e. with the derivation of constituted power from constituent power). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate – also by referring to the thought of F. Nietzsche and M. Heidegger, as well as by borrowing some canons from medieval scholasticism – the highly problematic character of this assumption. In order to reach such a demonstration, the work started from the reconstruction of the various doctrinal positions regarding the concept of constituent power, in particular, in the context of the debate about the existence of possible insurmountable and intrinsic limits to the power of self-reform contemplated by modern constitutional Charters, analyzing, lastly, the dynamics – also from a historiographical point of view – regarding the exercise of sovereignty and the subsisting relationship between peoples and their legal orders.
KEYWORDS – constituent power – constituted power – peoples and legal orders – exercising sovereignty – law and language