사회과학자가 본 법학연구 ; "헌법의 시민적 읽기": 한국 헌법학 반성을 위한 프롤로그

Abstract

A Constitution is a text, in principle, open to all citizens. Any people who

can read is supposed to read it and to know it. In a way, the Constitution is

compared to Bible which is open to all laymen. These, too, are encouraged to

read Bible and to learn it by themselves by simply reading it.

With the growth of modern legal science, however, the Constitution has

become much an intricate science and required much a technical understanding,

that no lay-citizens dare to read it without the intervention of legal experts. This

has caused the legal science to become more autonomous and less ministerial.

This paper proposes to begin anew a pre-juristic reading of the Constitution,

guided by the common sense of the ordinary citizens. This will open a way to

actualize the Aristotelian ideal of civic politics, where ordinary people enjoy the

right of sharing in deliberative and judicial affairs, thereby attaining the actual

sense of citizenship in their state.