The Aesthetics of Constitutional Space

Constitutional theory will by default subsume spatial phenomena under the territorial template of its statist paradigm. Constitutional space is, then, the ‘container’ that is more or less compatible with the spatial expanse that the constitutionally delimited state occupies. Alternatively, constitutional space may be seen metaphorically as an organizational schematic, as a ‘constitutional architecture’ in which the power relations of government branches, administrative units and bodies, are defined both vertically and horizontally. In this paper, constitutional space will be explored as a single multidimensional framework that, in addition to more physical aspects of space, includes mental and social dimensions as well. It will use Henri Lefebvre’s well-known ‘conceptual triad’ to account for the various dimensions that can only together form something that we might call constitutional space.