Conflicting Constitutional Principles: Vladimir Bibikhin on the Paradox of Constitutionalism

The paper argues that constitutions, solely based on their form and independent of the context, can produce both integrative and disintegrating effects, uniting society in one way and breaking it apart in another. It makes the argument by introducing the constitutional theory of Vladimir Bibikhin, Russian philosopher active in the 1990s. The paper argues that Bibikhin's analysis of the Russian constitution of 1993 and his general constitutional theory sheds new light on the Russian experience of constitution-making but also adds a layer of detail to the theory of the paradox of constitutionalism as it is formulated in the current debate. Bibikhin's theory, paper shows reveals the paradoxical nature of every constitution as such. This paradoxical nature is composed of three features: 1) constitutions simultaneously create and disintegrate communities; 2) constitutions are created by the people themselves but they (must) appear as alien and artificial; 3) constitutions simultaneously cannot and should be too ideal. Conclusion from this analysis points to an unexpected locus of constituent power.