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Conclusion

In this paper we have argued that a written constitution is capable of providing a stabilizing effect within a common law approach to constitutionalism, a stabilizing effect that robs the constitution of neither its adaptive nature nor its democratic legitimacy.

It does this not by having one unchanging meaning fixed for all time, but by having a meaning that develops in certain controlled but responsive ways that are reflective of developments (especially of a moral nature) within the com­munity of citizens it is intended to govern. The written constitution stabilizes devel­opment of the common law constitution not by tying it to a rigid meaning designed to prevent departures from age-old moral commitments. Instead, it ties the meaning of the constitution to linguistic and moral developments within the community it governs. And it militates against its diverging from the task it is ultimately meant to fulfil: of supplying the democratic community with a foundation, a common ground, in terms of which it is able to orientate itself.

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Source: Bustamante Thomas, Fernandes Bernardo. Democratizing Constitutional Law: Perspectives on Legal Theory and the Legitimacy of Constitutionalism. Springer International Publishing,2016. — 327 p.. 2016
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