Verfassungsablösung

In her work, the author examines the question of how democratic constitutional states can give themselves new constitutions. On the basis of a comparative analysis of constitutional practice, the author develops constitutional replacement as a sui generis institute of constitutional theory. The core of the question is in which constitutional cases and under which legal and theoretical conditions the replacement of the current constitution would be permissible. The author justifies constitutional replacement based on a democratic-legal understanding of the pouvoir constituant, the "constitution-replacing power". In this concept, the constituent sovereignty of the people becomes a right of the people to replace its constitution.