Available in Russian
Author: Andrey Medushevsky
DOI: 10.21128/1812-7126-2026-2-4-29
Keywords: construction of legal reality; ideology; utopia; system-forming myth; imagination; social imagination; imaginary constitutionalism; constitutional semantics; images of constitutionalism; visualization; emotions; positive and negative fiction; politics of law
In the context of the rapid changes in the modern world associated with globalization, informatization, and the revision of ethical standards of mass behavior, legal theory faces a number of problems — the loss of consensus in understanding global constitutionalism, growing disagreements regarding its values and principles, and unclear prospects for the future. What was previously defined as a social ideal is disappearing — a system of ideas about a perfect legal system that is both rational, fair, and effective and capable of serving as a guideline for legislators. This normative vacuum is designed to compensate for the theory of imaginary constitutionalism — those ideal projects of the constitutional system, the competition of which reflects the rivalry of various ideologies, regions, and political trends for the image of the future global legal order. From these positions, it becomes possible to conduct a comparative study of imaginary constitutions in the coordinates of space, time, and the meaning of existence; in the categories of value, content, and procedural parameters; in systems of information encoding in images, symbols, and the language of their texts; in mechanisms of representation in public legal consciousness; as well as in the degree of influence on changes in real constitutionalism in the present and its transformation in the future. The result of this study is a conclusion about the defining role of the constitutional imagination as a mechanism for the cognitive construction of legal reality in conditions of increasing information and normative uncertainty, when the current state of affairs ceases to suit, and the future remains uncertain. This role is manifested in the flexibility of the structure and the diversity of social functions of imaginary constitutionalism, which can act as a form of ideological justification for the legitimacy of the legal system, an incentive for constitutional modernization from the perspective of changing social reality, become its brake or a justification for constitutional retraditionalization, and finally, fulfill the tasks of a radical social utopia leading to the destruction of the supporting foundations of modern constitutionalism. This is what makes imaginary constitutionalism the sphere of developing competing social ideals, ethical and legal norms, and legal policy, and its theorists the designers of the constitutional forms of the future.
About the author: Andrey Medushevsky – Doctor of Sciences in Philosophy, Tenured Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
Citation: Medushevsky A. (2026) Voobrazhaemye konstitutsii: ot poleznoy fiktsii do destruktivnoy utopii [Imaginary constitutions: from useful fiction to destructive utopia]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 4–29. (In Russian).
References
Adams S., Smith J.C.A. (eds.) (2019) Social Imaginaries: Critical Interventions, London; New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
Anderson B. (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London: Verso.
Angeli O. (2017) Global Constitutionalism and Constitutional Imagination. Global Constitutionalism, vol.6, no.3, pp.359–376.
Antaki M. (2012) The Turn to Imagination in Legal Theory: The Re-Enchantment of the World? Law and Critique, vol.23, no.1, pp.1–20.
Bandes S.A., Madeira J.L., Temple K.D., White E.K. (eds.) (2021) Research Handbook on Law and Emotion, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Belov M. (2022) Constitutional Semiotics: The Conceptual Foundations of a Constitutional Theory and Meta-Theory, Oxford; London; New York: Hart Publishing.
Belov M. (ed.) (2025) Legal Imaginaries of Crisis and Fear: Dark Constitutionalism, London: Routledge.
Belov M., Florczak-Wątor M. (eds.) (2024) Constitutional Traditions and Constitutional Transitions, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Blokker P. (2017) The Imaginary Constitution of Constitutions. Social Imaginaries, vol.3, no.1, pp.167–193.
Bottici C. (2019) Imagination, Imaginary, Imaginal: Towards a New Social Ontology? Social Epistemology, vol.33, no.5, pp.433–441.
Brann E.T.H. (2017) The World of the Imagination: Sum and Substance, 25th ed., Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Browne C. (2019) The Modern Political Imaginary and the Problem of Hierarchy. Social Epistemology, vol.33, no.5, pp.398–409.
Browne C., Diehl P. (2019) Conceptualising the Political Imaginary: An Introduction to the Special Issue. Social Epistemology, vol.33, no.5, pp.393–397.
Brunkhorst H. (2014) Critical Theory of Legal Revolutions: Evolutionary Perspectives, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Canihac H. (2022) The Making of an Imagined “Community of Law”: Law, Market and Democracy in the Early Constitutional Imaginaries of European Integration. European Constitutional Law Review, vol.18, no.1, pp.2–29.
Castoriadis C. (1987) The Imaginary Institution of Society, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Červinka L.L. (2023) “Constitutional Imaginaries: A Theory of European Societal Constitutionalism” by Jiří Přibáň, London: Routledge, 2022, 176 pp., £130.00. Journal of Law and Society, vol.50, no.2, pp.287–291.
Dinan D., Nugent N., Paterson W.E. (eds.) (2017) The European Union in Crisis, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ezrahi Y. (2012) Imagined Democracies: Necessary Political Fictions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gephart W., Suntrup J.C. (eds.) (2019) Dynamics of Constitutional Cultures: The Cultural Manifestation and Political Force Field of Constitutionalism, Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann Verlag.
Gibbs N. (2010) European Constitutionalism and the Modern Social Imaginary. Law and Critique, vol.21, no.2, pp.147–162.
Hammill G. (2012) The Mosaic Constitution: Political Theology and Imagination from Machiavelli to Milton, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Hobsbawm E., Ranger T. (eds.) (2012) The Invention of Tradition, 20th ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Knöbl W. (2019) Debating the Political Imaginary: A Critical Assessment. Social Epistemology, vol.33, no.5, pp.452–461.
Komárek J. (2023) European Constitutional Imaginaries: Utopias, Ideologies, and the Other. In: Komárek J. (ed.) European Constitutional Imaginaries: Between Ideology and Utopia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.1–17.
Komárek J. (2023) Why Read “The Transformation of Europe” Today? On the Limits of a Liberal Constitutional Imaginary. In: Komárek J. (ed.) European Constitutional Imaginaries: Between Ideology and Utopia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.119–146.
Krogel M. (2024) Constitutional Imaginaries: The Story of the Rise and Fall of Intellectual Enchantment. European Journal of Legal Studies, vol.15, no.2, pp.91–107.
Kustra-Rogatka A. (2022) European Integration — Ineffable Aspiration or the Object of Concern? About Ambiguity of Europe in the Polish Constitutional Imaginary. iCourts Working Paper Series, no.312. URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4287385 (дата обращения: 01.04.2026).
Latham-Gambi A. (2021) The Constitutional Imaginary: Shared Meanings in Constitutional Practice and Implications for Constitutional Theory. Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law, vol.15, no.1, pp.21–51.
Lee K.P. (2020) Constitutional Morality and the Emerging Social Imaginary of the Information Revolution. Humanitas, vol.33, no.1–2, pp.51–68.
Lindseth P.L. (2023) The Constitutional Imaginary and Metabolic Realities of European Integration. In: Komárek J. (ed.) European Constitutional Imaginaries: Between Ideology and Utopia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.199–213.
Loughlin M. (2015) The Constitutional Imagination. Modern Law Review, vol.78, no.1, pp.1–25.
Manderson D. (2021) The Big Picture: Imagining the Constitution. Federal Law Review, vol.49, no.2, pp.303–323.
Mannheim K. (1936) Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge, L.Wirth, E.Shils (transl.), New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Nur A. (2024) Envisioning a Consultative Umma: An Introduction to Namik Kemal’s Constitutional Imaginary. Journal of Islamic Review, vol.14, no.1, pp.149–169.
Oklopcic Z. (2018) Beyond the People: Social Imaginary and Constituent Imagination, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Přibáň J. (2022) Constitutional Imaginaries: A Theory of European Societal Constitutionalism, Abingdon; New York: Routledge.
Přibáň J. (2023) Constitutionalism, Populism, and the Imaginary of the Authentic Polity: A Socio-Legal Analysis of European Public Spheres and Constitutional Democratization. Journal of Law and Society, vol.50, pp.S26–S24.
Přibáň J. (2023) European Constitutional Imaginaries: On Pluralism, Calculemus, Imperium, and Communitas. In: Komárek J. (ed.) European Constitutional Imaginaries: Between Ideology and Utopia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.21–43.
Ricoeur P. (1986) Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, New York: Columbia University Press.
Sajó A. (2016) Emotions in Constitutional Institutions. Emotion Review, vol.8, no.1, pp.44–49.
Singer B.C.J. (2020) On Conceptualizing the Political Imaginary. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, vol.9, no.6, pp.1–14.
Suami T., Peters A., Vanoverbeke D., Kumm M. (eds.) (2018) Global Constitutionalism from European and East Asian Perspectives, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Suteu S. (2025) Democratic Backsliding and Comparative Constitutional Soul-Searching in Europe. Constitutional Studies, vol.11, no.1, pp.115–145.
Taylor C. (2004) Modern Social Imaginaries, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Thornhill C. (2011) A Sociology of Constitutions: Constitutions and State Legitimacy in Historical-Sociological Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Torres G., Guinier L. (2012) The Constitutional Imaginary: Just Stories about We the People. Cornell Law Faculty Publications, Paper no.1228, pp.1052–1072.
Vorländer H. (2017) Constitutions as Symbolic Orders: The Cultural Analysis of Constitutionalism. In: Blokker P., Thornhill C. (eds.) Sociological Constitutionalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.209–240.