Asking for Directions: The Origins of Gomes Canotilho Directive Constitutionalism at the Crossroads of Contemporary Constitutional Thought.

As part of a wider critical-reconstructive reflection. this foray into the theory of the directive constitution, advanced by Gomes Canotilho in 1982 and highly influential in Latin-American and Southern-European countries, hopes to capitalize on its inspiring suggestions, while making them available to a wider public. The attempt is to topically reconstitute the basic genealogy of Canotilho's proposal. by searching for some of its sources and tributaries within the context of: (1) the New International Economic Order and the developmental constitutionalist projects to which it directly or indirectly gave rise (particularly the Lusophone decolonial movement); (2) the wave of South European democratic transitions, especially in its revolutionary moments and attentive to the understandable commitment and socially transformative and emancipatory aspirations constitutionally assumed by then (in parallel with Spain and Greece), (3) the influence exerted by the post-war Italian and German constitutional doctrine, to the point of (a) allowing for Canotilho's inscription in an honourable lineage which dates back to Heller and Smend, and passes through Hesse, bringing him progressively close to Haberle, and (b) rooting the thesis of dirigism in the debate between Abendroth and Forsthoff with marginal regards to V. Crisafulli and R Lerche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]