Ensuring Constitutional Identity: Amendments, Judicial Review, and Public Participation in Constitutional Dynamics
Keywords:
Constitutional Identity, Constitutional Amendments, Judicial Review, Public Participation, Participatory ConstitutionalismAbstract
Contemporary constitutional scholarship has extensively examined constitutional amendments and judicial review as mechanisms for preserving constitutional order, yet it remains predominantly court-centered and insufficiently attentive to the democratic dimensions of constitutional identity protection. Existing Scopus-indexed studies largely conceptualize constitutional identity as a judicially enforced constraint, leaving the role of public participation under-theorized as a substantive safeguard within amendment processes. This article addresses that gap by reconceptualizing constitutional identity as a dynamic construct shaped through the interaction between constitutional amendments, judicial review, and public participation. It employs a normative legal method with a conceptual and comparative approach, analyzing constitutional doctrines, judicial practices, and participatory mechanisms across selected constitutional systems.The analysis demonstrates that judicial review, while essential for enforcing substantive constitutional limits, operates primarily as an ex post safeguard and faces inherent legitimacy constraints. Public participation, by contrast, enhances democratic legitimacy but lacks institutional authority when detached from normative constitutional frameworks. This article argues that constitutional identity is most effectively preserved through an integrative model in which public participation functions as an ex ante democratic filter, complemented by judicial review as an ex post normative control. The novelty of this study lies in advancing a tripartite constitutional framework that moves beyond judicial-centric approaches by systematically integrating participatory constitutionalism into constitutional identity protection. By aligning democratic deliberation with institutional oversight, this framework contributes a normative reorientation to global debates on unconstitutional constitutional amendments and offers practical relevance for constitutional systems seeking to balance constitutional flexibility with democratic legitimacy
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