Financial Markets and Societal Constitutionalism
The global financial crisis of 2008 proved that a sovereign of last
resort would always rescue the financial system from self-destruction.
In constitutional democracies, stability and change are balanced
through constitutional devices and procedures. In global finance's
realm, on the contrary, no room is left for a dialectic between stability
and change. The question of how power is distributed within the
financial system is not only intrinsically connected with the analysis of
its legal functioning but is also a necessary premise for addressing the
issue of reform before the next, and perhaps fatal, `catastrophe
moment'. States might thus recognize that to be treated as sovereigns
only when it fits with the immediate needs of the global finance is not a
good deal. Nor is it to renounce ex ante whichever reform that could
avert a global crisis without threatening the elasticity of the law that
governs the financial system.