Abstract

The article provides a critical assessment of the thesis of the market being a source of natural law proffered by Roberto Bin in his recent essay "Che cos'è la Costituzione?". Discussion focuses on the impact of EC law of circulation on state constitutional law and its aim of regulating economic and social conflicts in a pluralist framework. Three typical scenarios are portrayed whereby the law of circulation in turn i) interpheres with state regulatory autonomy, ii) enhances state regulatory autonomy, iii) questions key principles of state constitutional law. The general picture reveals a more complex reality than that suggested by the "market as a source of natural law" thesis. Notably, it is argued that at present not only state constitutional law is undergoing a deep process of transformation prompted by economic principles developed at supranational and transnational level, but also that related to these very principles a corpus of "vulgar constitutionalism" challenging critical aspects of state constitutional law is emerging.