Somsubhra Banerjee (European Research Council Scholar)
Research Area: Constitutional law
Supervisor(s): Eoin Carolan
Thesis Title: Reevaluating Legitimacy; Constitutionalism and Legitimate Authority after third-wave Populism
Abstract: The past decade has witnessed growing concerns regarding the need to democratise constitutions and institutions arising from them; based largely on two factors. The first such concern being that constitutions are not sufficiently accommodative of democratic principles, be it owing to historical or structural reasons. This is further compounded by the reality of the limitations in avenues of participation available to most citizens in constitutional matters. The other prominent criticism of contemporary constitutionalism points out that domestic constitutions are increasingly influenced by internationally decided ideals that the domestic communities themselves exercise no control over. These concerns regarding constitutionalism and related institutions have manifested themselves in a new wave of political movements that have based themselves on granting power back to the people in regimes that are/were generally liberal constitutionalisms. The implication that such systems had taken control away from the people and that such control could be granted to the people only by replacing such systems has made it necessary to investigate existing democratic deficits in constitutional systems. The electoral success of such movements has made it important for constitutional theory to reconsider its relationship with legitimacy and authority. The fact that these contemporary movements shun traditional constitutional controls on legislative power and are overwhelmingly against internationalism makes such revaluation all the more necessary. To appreciate if and how there has grown a gap between legal norms and social facts and to better confront the gradual delegitimization of constitutional institutions, the thesis sets out to identify what constitutes legitimate authority and its relationship with constitutions.
Biography: Somsubhra is a PhD student at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin (UCD). As part of the European Research Council (ERC) funded Foundations of Institutional Authority project, his research focuses on theoretical conceptions of legitimate authority and reevaluating the same in the context of successful populist movements. Somsubhra completed his undergraduate degree [B.A. LL. B (Hons.)] in law from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. He worked for a year as a lawyer dealing primarily in general corporate and commercial practices. Somsubhra completed his master’s degree (MSc) from the United Nations University and Maastricht University in Public Policy and Human Development. He was employed as a political consultant with the Indian Political Action Committee where he worked on campaign design and project management.