Incohérence temporelle et théories de l’interprétation constitutionnelle

Abstract

Constitutions are mostly considered in economics as devices to bound political power and commit political choices through times (temporal consistency). However, this traditional position underestimates the impact of the behaviour of authorities in charge of constitutional interpretation. Indeed, if constitutional interpretation is seen as an act of will (and not an act of knowledge), such inter-temporal inconsistency might reappear. After studying how theories of constitutional interpretation deal with this problem, we show that economics, law and political science converge on the key-element of credibility and legitimacy.

Keywords

• constitutions
• law and economics
• legitimacy
• credibility
• temporal incoherence
• interpretation