The Foundations of Institutional AuThority: a multi-dimensional model of the separation of powers

Project Information

FIAT

Grant agreement ID: 819877

DOI

10.3030/819877

EC signature date 27 February 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 997 627,50

EU contribution

€ 1 997 627,50

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - FIAT (The Foundations of Institutional AuThority: a multi-dimensional model of the separation of powers)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

‘Almost three centuries later, it is past time to rethink Montesquieu’s holy trinity’ (Ackerman, 2010).

As Ackerman (and many others) have observed, political reality has long left the traditional model of the separation of powers behind. The problems posed by this gap between constitutional theory and political practice have recently acquired fresh urgency as political and social developments place the separation of powers under strain. These include the emergence of authoritarian leaders; personalisation of political authority; recourse to non-legal plebiscites; and the capture or de-legitimisation of other constitutional bodies.

This project argues that these difficulties are rooted in a deeper problem with constitutional thinking about institutional power: a constitution-as-law approach that equates the conferral of legal power with the authority to exercise it. This makes it possible for a gap to emerge between legal accounts of authority and its diverse –and potentially conflicting – sociological foundations. Where that gap exists, the practical authority of an institution (or constitution) may be vulnerable to challenge from rival and more socially-resonant claims. It is this gap between legal norms and social facts that the project will investigate – and ultimately bridge. How is authority established? How is it maintained? How might it fail? And how does the constitution shape, re-shape and come to be shaped by those processes?

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

By investigating these questions across six case studies, the project will produce a multi-dimensional account of institutional authority that takes seriously the sociological influence of both law and culture.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results from these cases provide the evidential foundation for the project’s final outputs: a new model and new evaluative measures of the separation of powers.

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