The Distinction Between Constitutional Values and Constitutional Principles

This chapter explores the distinction between constitutional values and principles by deploying axiological, legal, moral, ethical, and semantic arguments. It compares constitutional law perspectives and examples from Europe and from around the world. The chapter examines the essence of values and principles in modern constitutional law discourses and their significance in constitutional legal practice. While lawyers may use the two terms interchangeably, it is argued that they are different concepts and should not necessarily be used synonymously. The chapter proposes that constitutional values, in all their abstraction, may be further recognised and crystallised through constitutional principles and constitutional rights in a given constitutional order. Conversely, principles tend to operate beneath values but are actually supportive of values. The chapter argues that from the analytical and the practical point of view, a more hierarchical and, indeed, a more rational ordering of concepts, ought to be adopted in the modern subject of constitutional law, as this would benefit both the subject and practitioners. The chapter thus contends that constitutional values, where they are recognised in a constitutional law order, ought to represent and act as the highest axioms therein, followed by principles and, interestingly, by rights, which tend to be less abstract.

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