Abstract

The recent phenomenon of worldwide forms of “transitionµ of constitutionalism has outlined the importance of upgrading the comparative constitutional law approach from a Law & Society perspective to traditional constitutionalism. The challenge of this paper is focused on questioning, from a global perspective, the contemporary effectiveness of fundamental values which, notwithstanding their constitutional recognition, are now threatened by the deep transition that democracies are currently experiencing shifting into a retrogression turn. The case of South Africa, the legal system which itself is the outcome of a constitutional transition – up to be part of the outlook and support from the Venice Commission –, offers the chance for questioning if, in the prism of a dialogical circulation of ideas and cross-fertilization, some lessons can be considered for some specific purposes: to fill the gap between law in books and in action; to assure the maintenance (or renaissance?) of fundamental principles; to look for an alternative, operational vision of post-national constitutionalism. Some key factors in the law and society debate emerge through the focus on investigating the most characterizing traditional principle of constitutionalism: the principle of equality, in its specific variation of gender equality. That appears to be an effective starting point to define an operational and strategic legal reasoning methodology, which goes much beyond strictly legal reforms and founds its roots in the role of culture and public morality to bring out a renewed role of the constitutional reasoning, a creative legal process based on the so-called intersectional approach fostering dialogue and a proactive, dynamic global attitude towards networking. Strategic foresight to inspire an updated global constitutional discourse based on “constitutional qualityµ?