In recent years a series of scandals have challenged the traditional political reliance on public constitutional law and human rights as a safeguard of human well-being. Multinational corporations have violated human rights; private intermediaries in the internet have threatened freedom of opinion, and the global capital markets unleashed catastrophic risks. All of these phenomena call for a response from traditional constitutionalism. Yet it is outside the limits of the nation-state in transnational politics and outside institutionalized politics, in the 'private' sectors of global society that these constitutional problems arise. It is widely accepted that there is a crisis in traditional constitutionalism caused by transnationalization and privatization. How the crisis can be overcome is one of the major controversies of modern political and constitutional theory. This book sets out an answer to that problem. It argues that the obstinate state-and-politics-centricity of traditional constitutionalism needs to be counteracted by a sociological approach which, so far, has remained neglected in the constitutional debate. Constitutional sociology projects the questions of constitutionalism not only onto the relationship between public politics and law, but onto the whole society. It argues that constitutionalism has the potential to counteract the expansionist tendencies of social systems outside the state world, particularly of the globalized economy, science and technology, and the information media, when they endanger individual or institutional autonomy. The book identifies transnational regimes, particularly in the private area, as the new constitutional subjects in a global society, rivals to the order and power of nation states. It presents a model of transnational, societal constitutional fragments that could bring the values of constitutionalism to bear on these private networks, examining the potential horizontal application of human rights in the private sphere, and how such fragments could interact. An original and provocative contribution to the literature on modern constitutionalism, Constitutional Fragments is essential reading for all those engaged in transnational political theory.

貢塔·托依布納（Gunther Teubner）生於1944年，德國法蘭剋福大學私法與法律社會學教授，當代德國及西方著名法律社會學傢。曾在哥廷根大學、圖賓根大學及加州大學伯剋利分校學習法律與法律社會學，並曾任教於法蘭剋福大學、不萊梅大學、加州大學伯剋利分校、斯坦福大學等院校。托依布納是繼盧曼之後，當代關於法律係統理論最重要的代錶性人物。

譯者簡介：陸宇峰，清華大學法學碩士、法學博士，華東政法大學法律史學博士後。現為華東政法大學科學研究院副研究員。

校對者簡介：紀海龍，清華大學法學碩士，德國哥廷根大學法學博士。現為華東政法大學國際金融法律學院副教授。