Rethinking Public Power

Presentation of a research project as part of the "Jeudis de la Maison Suger", a residents' research seminar.

This session will welcome Donatoi Vese for a discussion on the contemporary transformations of public authority, through the concepts of sovereignty, fundamental rights, and the republican state, drawing on the recent work of Luca R. Perfetti.

"How should public power be understood in the constitutional order of the twenty-first century? Democratic fragmentation, economic globalisation, and technological transformation are reshaping the relationship between sovereignty, public authority, and fundamental rights, calling for renewed reflection on the constitutional foundations of legitimate public power. At a time when established understandings of the State, the public interest, and democratic legitimacy are being reconsidered, contemporary constitutional scholarship is increasingly confronted with the need to rethink the normative foundations of public institutions. This seminar takes Luca R. Perfetti’s recent book L’amministrazione repubblicana. Un percorso di ricerca attraverso potere pubblico, sovranità, diritti fondamentali as the starting point for a broader discussion of these questions. Challenging conventional conceptions of State authority, the book advances an original constitutional account in which sovereignty is no longer understood as an attribute of the State itself, but as a principle that structures and legitimises public power through the constitutional order of fundamental rights. From this perspective, public institutions derive both their legitimacy and their constitutional purpose from fundamental rights, with public power conceived as an instrument constitutionally ordered to their effective protection and fulfilment rather than as an autonomous source of authority.  The seminar will situate these arguments within broader debates on constitutionalism, democracy, and political authority. It will examine how contemporary transformations of public power invite a reconsideration of the relationship between law, sovereignty, and public institutions, while exploring the capacity of constitutional scholarship to respond to the challenges posed by globalisation, technological governance, and the evolving relationship between State and society. In doing so, it seeks to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue on the future of constitutional democracy and the legal foundations of republican government."

Introduction and moderation by Donato Vese.

Seminar presentation by Luca R. Perfetti.

Discussion by Bérénice Bauduin.