the temporalities of law document or indeed any specific documents, modern constitutionalism presupposed a single, legally formalized, written constitutional document. The textuality of modern constitutionalism was evident in several ways. Most important, the constitutional document was adopted formally by a specific assembly. Therefore, the document’s legality and textuality were closely connected. To change this type of constitution, the competent state organ had to rewrite the original constitutional document in the form of an amendment, as dictated by the very same constitutional document. Since this understanding of the concept assumed that the constitutional document was exhaustive, state organs could derive their legally binding authority only from this single document; they could not derive legally binding authority from pretextual practices or authorities outside the written constitutional document. Owing to this circular dynamic, any additional legal document that regulated only parts of a constitutional order was not regarded as a constitutional document. The modern constitution was constituted by two elements: the legal structure and working of a political organization (a state), and the relationship between this state and its citizens, often in the form of human rights. As all modern constitutions adhered to this model, albeit in different ways, each modern constitution had dimensions of both universalismand particularism, with their specific time-understanding. Because of its universalism, each modern constitutional document was connected with literally hundreds of similar constitutional texts in states across the world. These constitutional texts had the same character, and were all linked to the general constitutional concept. Starting in 1776 with the first of the American revolutionary constitutions, modern constitutional writing evolved as a global practice, although with great political and ideological variety, from the truly liberal democratic constitutions to the many authoritarian constitutions. Into this formalized and politicized constitutional textual tradition came anew relationship with time. From 1776, the modern constitution was understood as a normative, prescriptive concept. Constitutions did not, as before, describe only a particular social state. They now norma325
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