Reading the Constitution as an Integrated Whole: an Exploration of an Interpretative Instrument

This chapter probes the concept of a constitution as a singular act, differentiating between operative and symbolic understandings of constitutional unity. The dichotomy is applied to the Croatian context, identifying fora in which the two facets of the Croatian constitution are developed. I suggest that the republican vision of unity remains underrepresented. Symbolic understandings of constitutional unity are subjected to other, more substantive visions of nationhood, whereas operative dimensions of unity are relegated to the Constitutional Court