To this end, every constitutional framework tends to protract its duration as long as possible, implicitly, by merely projecting its rules into the future and posing itself as fundamental law, or more explicitly, by adopting mechanisms that ensure its perpetuity (unamendable clauses, doctrine of unconstitutional constitutional amendments, and exclusion of anti-system groups). However, by insulating a particular time and projecting it into the future, constitutionalism raises several challenges. It triggers a democratic challenge, as it risks depriving future people of the possibility to decide the future rules or makes these decisions particularly difficult. It also triggers an epistemic challenge, assuming that the needs, preferences, technology, and values of the future will remain the same as today. Last, it poses an efficiency challenge: are constitutionalism and its tools well suited for achieving the objectives of stability and endurance of the rules?

Parallel but complementary to this preservative function, constitutional law is also a vehicle for transformation. At its very core lies the constituent moment, that is for change: the promise and the premise of the constituent power is that we must change things, and we must change ourselves. Constitutional law bends the past of a community toward its future, bridging them to heal the wounds of the past and to guide them to a better future. During the constitutional moment, time is suspended, then broken, and then it starts again. This process uses constitutional norms to trigger social, economic, and political change. Constitutional norms therefore not only change over time, but they change in good part due to factors internal to the nature of law itself: continuity with the past is a necessity, but not a duty. Constitutional law is unavoidably path-dependent, but not rigidly past-determined. Rather, it is concurrently backward-looking and forward-looking, a matter of appreciating the past and anticipating the future.

By gathering experts from different fields and approaches this workshop aims to explore the boundaries of constitutional time, which time-frames are relevant for constitutional law, and to address the legal strategies and techniques to make temporal constitutional law possible. The purpose of the workshop is to make concrete proposals for ensuring consistency between constitutional law and time and to address the potential and critics of legal devices elaborated for this purpose. The workshop will also examine the timeframe adopted in different domains of law, to assess similarities, differences, and peculiarities of the legal time therein.

To this end, the following questions will be debated:

1. Temporal Challenges in Constitutional Interpretation: How does the interpretation of constitutional provisions evolve? What is the impact of changing social norms and values on constitutional interpretation? What role does historical context play in shaping constitutional meanings?

2. Temporal Limits of Constitutional Norms: What is the efficacy of temporal limitations on governmental powers? What is the role and effectiveness of sunset clauses, eternity clauses, and other institutional safeguards?

3. Adaptation and Constitutional Resilience: To what extent constitutional frameworks can adapt to evolving circumstances? Which are the most successful legal mechanisms for constitutional resilience in the face of unforeseen challenges? Where to strike the balance between stability and adaptability in constitutional design?

4. Future Rights and Constitutional Design: Which legal devices are possible for balancing the interests of the present, the rights of the past, and the future generations’ expectations? Are all constitutional provisions enacted from a forward-looking perspective?

5. Temporal Dimension of Subject-Area: Does the legal time flow differently in each domain of the law? Are constitutional principles on the temporal boundaries of law different, and if yes, why and to what extent?

Programme

Introduction (13.30-13.40) Mariolina Eliantonio (Maastricht University) 

Keynote (13.40-14.45) Silvia Suteu (University College London)  

Discussant Massimo Fichera (Maastricht University)

Break (14.45-15.00)

Session I (15.00-16.30)

Chair Joost Sillen (Maastricht University)

• Yaniv Roznai (Reichman University)  

• Ruth Houghton (Newcastle University)

• Martijn Stronks (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) 

Break (16.30-16.45)

Session II (16:45-18:15)

Chair Marijn van der Sluis (Maastricht University)  

• Laura Burgers (University of Amsterdam)  

• Eva Bernet Kempers (Antwerp University)  

• Francisco de Abreu Duarte (European University Institute) 

Concluding Remarks (18:15-18:30) Franco Peirone (Maastricht University)  

Speakers Dinner (19:30-22:00)