Abstract:The future of global law seems currently in doubt. Despite this development, and indeed partly because of it, comparative constitutional law and human rights are blossoming as academic disciplines. This makes it a good moment to ask if global constitutional law (by which I mean to refer both to comparative constitutional law and international human rights law) has a canon and whether it needs one. I argue that we do not as yet have much in the way of a canon but that we need one or, at least, a debate about one. I begin by offering a first and tentative assessment of the state of the debate and then discuss in more detail what type of canon might fit global constitutional law. I reject the more traditional, religious conception of a canon as an assembly of normatively authoritative texts as incompatible with comparative law. I argue instead that a canon of global constitutional law should fulfil three key functions: (a) serving as a disciplinary platform establishing the foundations of a shared discourse among comparative constitutionalists and human rights lawyers; (b) encouraging self-reflection by making room for different voices and criticism as well as giving us a sense of the historical development of our fields; and (c) supporting the normative agenda of human rights and democratic constitutionalism. From this, I draw four factors relevant to the canonical status of individual judicial decisions in global constitutional law. Finally, I examine the famous US decision Obergefell v Hodges as a candidate for a global canon as compared to other decisions on same-sex marriage, thus applying my previous arguments to a concrete case.

中文翻译：

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构建全球宪法大炮：在权威与批评之间

摘要：全球法律的未来目前似乎存在疑问。尽管有这种发展，而且确实部分是因为它，比较宪法和人权作为学科正在蓬勃发展。现在是询问全球宪法（我的意思是指比较宪法和国际人权法）是否有正典以及是否需要正典的好时机。我认为，我们目前还没有太多关于正典的东西，但我们需要一个，或者至少，关于一个正典的辩论。我首先对辩论的状态进行初步的初步评估，然后更详细地讨论哪种类型的正典可能适合全球宪法。我拒绝将正典视为与比较法不相容的规范权威文本的集合的更传统的宗教概念。相反，我认为全球宪法的经典应该履行三个关键功能：(a) 作为一个纪律平台，为比较宪法学家和人权律师之间的共享话语奠定基础；(b) 鼓励自我反省，为不同的声音和批评留出空间，让我们了解我们领域的历史发展；(c) 支持人权和民主宪政的规范议程。由此，我得出了与个人司法判决在全球宪法中的规范地位相关的四个因素。最后，我将著名的美国判决 Obergefell v Hodges 与其他关于同性婚姻的判决进行比较，作为全球经典的候选人，从而将我之前的论点应用于具体案例。