The Constitution as Order of Values. Reflections Around Neoconstitutionalism

Abstract

This article intends to show how Neoconstitutionalism responds to the development of a constitutional theory and practice, both of which are progressively convergent. Such development has played an important role on the decisions of the German Federal Constitutional Court and on the science of public law in Germany. Such development is born from the adoption of the Constitution as an order of values. Definitely, it is no other thing than a transformation occurred due to the adoption of a theory about what the Constitution is: an order of values, where the structural elements of the State obey to principles which are also found in the basis of the fundamental rights system. What is new and capital about this form of constitutionalism are the material and substantial qualities of the Constitution which make it practically omnipresent in every creative operation and application of law.