From structure to integration: the trajectory of the material constitution

This chapter reconstructs the way in which the proponents of two schools, namely theoretical socialism and legal institutionalism, approached the notion of the material constitution before the concept was formalized by Costantino Mortati. The key argument made in the chapter is that there is more to learn on the material constitution from these two streams of thought than from the works of Schmitt and Kelsen. Nonetheless, the chapter also shows the limits of these two versions of the material constitution and this is why Mortati’s theory remains the most accomplished reflection on the topic