Chris Thornhill is Professor of European Political Thought and Head of Politics at the University of Glasgow, where his research focuses both on the relations between legal and political theory and legal and political sociology and on processes of state formation and constitution writing in different European societies.

• 1. Medieval constitutions; 2. Constitutions and early modernity; 3. States, rights and the revolutionary form of power; 4. Constitutions from Empire to Fascism; 5. Constitutions and democratic transitions.

'This book discusses in a highly original and sophisticated manner aspects of the makings and workings of constitutions, whose significance (both intellectual and practical) has not been previously recognized. It will establish itself as the cornerstone of a new line of scholarship, complementary to more conventional historical and juridical approaches to constitutional analysis.' Gianfranco Poggi, University of Trento