Constitutional Narratives: Constitutional Adjudication on the Religion Clauses in Australia and Malaysia

Abstract

Constitutions are, in part, a story that a country tells about itself.1 It tells the world that a country is: democratic and rights respecting;2 revolutionary and radical;3 religious and righteous;4 traditionalist and lawyerly. Yet the story is not static and, in most cases, there is not a single story about the broader place and purpose of the constitution. There may be a dominant story at a particular point in time, but there are usually other stories that contest that dominance and, particularly at times of constitutional controversy, may lead to the rise of a new dominant narrative.