Overview

This book explores the epistemological, semiotic, semantic, and heuristic dimensions of the dark emotions in constitutional and international law. We are living in times of crisis and emergency where negative emotions and dark feelings are abundant. As these have come to form the intellectual and socio-legal context for the performance of constitutional and international law, this book explores their place – especially the politics of fear, but also anger, hate, despair, and crisis – in our current constitutional polycrisis. Focusing on this ‘dark constitutionalism’, the book draws together an international and interdisciplinary range of scholars to consider the place of emotive semiotics in collective meaning making, the constitutional politics of emotions, and emotional approaches to global challenges in a time of crisis, emergency, and transition. The book thereby develops a compelling analysis of the use of negative emotions in the shaping of contemporary constitutional imaginaries, and with it a novel account of the rise of dark constitutionalism. This book will appeal to researchers and scholars working in the areas of legal theory, legal philosophy, constitutional law, international law, and socio-legal studies. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Full Product Details

Author:   Martin Belov
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.760kg
ISBN:  

9781041165712

ISBN 10:   1041165714
Pages:   314
Publication Date:   18 November 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Concept of Dark Constitutionalism Martin Belov Chapter 2: Is it the End of the World as We Know it? The Heuristics of Fear and Apocalyptic Visions in Politics Marta Soniewicka Chapter 3: “Nothing Spreads Like Fear”. From the Government of the Plague to the Crime of Contagion Emilia Musumeci Chapter 4: Constitutional Over-Belief: Affective Intensity as a Function of Legitimation Richard Sherwin Chapter 5: Revolutionary Constitutions and their Constitutionalism: The Internalization of Fear as Process and the Performance of Crisis in the Service of Stability Larry Catá Backer Chapter 6: From Fear to Hope: Law and Emotions' Response to Global Challenges Julia Wesołowska Chapter 7: Politics of Fear and Social Transformation Through the Lens of Legal Politics Mario Krešić Chapter 8: (Re)Invention of Memory. Constitutional Narratives in Central European – Sombre or Luminous? Mirosław M. Sadowski Chapter 9: Trauma, Melancholia and the Law Sabarish Suresh Chapter 10: Crisis Affects in the International Legal Discourse Jean D’Aspremont Chapter 11: Terrorism as Imaginary: Creating Politics of Fear Vesselin Popovski Chapter 12: Climate Alarmism and Denialism Shalvi Ponwar Conclusion: Pulsing Constitutionalism and the Dichotomy between Dark and Bright Constitutionalism as Driving Force in Constitutional Space-Time Martin Belov

Reviews

Author Information

Martin Belov is Professor in Constitutional and Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Sofia ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’. He is Vice Dean of the University of Sofia ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’, Faculty of Law.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions