For generations, the study of constitutional law has begun with a standard distinction: some constitutions are “written” while others are “unwritten.” However, this binary classification is both incorrect and misleading. It is incorrect because all constitutions are composed of written texts, and it is misleading because all constitutions contain unwritten rules. This false distinction moreover overlooks the most important formal difference among the constitutions of the world: some constitutions consist of a single, supreme document of higher law while others consist of multiple documents, each enacted separately with shared supremacy under law. Ubiquitous but so far unnoticed, these constitutions comprising multiple texts are a unique constitutional form that has yet to be studied and theorized. They might be called multi-textual constitutions.

Multi-textual constitutions differ from single-text constitutions on the major markers of constitutional life: their initial design, their ongoing evolution, their authoritative interpretation, and their formal amendment. Multi-textual constitutions moreover raise intriguing possibilities for governance in relation to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law that set them apart from the world’s dominant model of uni-textual constitutions.

How to explain, illustrate, and theorize the design and operation of multi-textual constitutions? What are their origins? What results is a reordering of our basic constitutional categories, a deep analytical dive into a distinct constitutional form, and a disruptive revelation about some of the world’s paradigmatic model of a uni-textual constitution.

The lecture will be held in English. The moderator of the lector is prof. dr. Toma Birmontienė, professor at Institute of Public Law of Mykolas Romeris Law School.

Prof. Richard Albert, visiting Mykolas Romeris university at the invitation of Institute of Public Law, is the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law, Professor of Government, and Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published over 25 books on constitutional democracy. A global thought leader on democratic development, he is Co-President of the International Society of Public Law, the world's largest and leading learned society for scholars in administrative, constitutional and international law. He is also a founding director of the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to marshal knowledge and experience to build a world of opportunity, liberty, and dignity for all. Richard Albert holds law and political science degrees from Yale University, the University of Oxford and Harvard University. For more information, see: https://law.utexas.edu/faculty/richard-albert and https://www.richardalbert.com/biography.html.