Abstract
This lecture reconstructs the history of modern constitutionalism by showing how constitutional law is connected to Imperialism. Addressing primary sites of constitutional construction, it examines how the norms of common citizenship that historically generated legitimacy for constitutions were initially constructed as the substructure of Empires, arising from integration processes that typified Imperialism. This was linked to the transformation of Imperialism after circa 1750, which promoted new military recruitment methods. The lecture connects this discussion account to wider sociological analysis of the relation between nations and Empires, explaining that, generally, nations cannot be neatly differentiated from Empires. It concludes that militarization needs to be re-examined as a core principle for explaining constitutional formation.