Liberal Democratic Constitutionalism and the Invasion of Ukraine

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves through the existing political order. Some of these shocks evoke familiar patterns and crises: large-scale ground operations between immediate neighbours based in claims of ethnonationalism; a NATO-Russia geopolitical cleavage that pits liberal democracy against autocracy; EU expansion which came about as previously Soviet territories have sought security through a version of collective cosmopolitanism; the ominous possibility of a major nuclear power launching a first strike. Other shockwaves would have been unimaginable in the last century: a war communicated minute-by-minute from grassroots observers by social media; decisive NATO bloc retaliation based primarily on economic sanctions; and cyberwarfare as a parallel front.

What is unequivocal is that the conflict in Ukraine is reshaping and illuminating realities of the contemporary global order, and constitutionalism’s role within it. Both the vulnerability of an emerging liberal democracy to military invasion, and the fierce resistance, led by a democratically elected president, that has invoked the right to self-determination, emphasize the role of global constitutionalism in this struggle.

This special issue of Global Constitutionalism will offer rigorous yet creatively ambitious perspectives on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, cutting across topics and speaking to it while it is still fresh in memory and in political consciousness. To that end, we are inviting papers from the fields of international relations, international public law, and political theory that assess the implications of the invasion of Ukraine from the perspective of global constitutionalism. We welcome papers from scholars across disciplines and subfields. We are particularly eager to hear from early career researchers and those traditionally underrepresented in the academy.

The selection process for this SI will be open and papers will undergo a streamlined procedure for review to ensure a rapid route to publication. If you are interested in publishing, please submit an abstract (500 words maximum) to globcon-journal@soton.ac.uk by 3rd of June 2022.

After reviewing abstracts, we will invite authors to submit a full draft manuscript (7,000-12,000 words) by 7th of October 2022.

These submitted pieces will undergo double-blind peer review for inclusion in a special issue in 2023.

Call For Papers - Liberal Democratic Constitutionalism and the Invasion of Ukraine