Toward a Global and Critical Comparative Constitutional Science: A Theoretical Approach to Contemporary Constitutional Comparativism

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of comparative constitutional law as a scientific discipline and as an essential tool for contemporary constitutional design, interpretation, and reform. It explains how legal globalization has fostered a transnational judicial dialogue, generating phenomena of normative convergence and institutional hybridization. The paper analyzes the field’s object, methodological foundations, and research phases, emphasizing the empirical turn that has strengthened its scientific validity. It also offers a critique of the Eurocentric canon that dominated the discipline throughout the twentieth century and proposes a more inclusive perspective that recognizes the constitutional plurality of the Global South. Additionally, the study explores the practical applications of comparative methods in legislation, judicial reasoning, and constitutional engineering, as well as the risks of uncritical institutional transplantation. The article concludes that comparative constitutional law has consolidated itself as a global, critical, and explanatory constitutional science.