Present at the Creation: Nascent Constitutionalism During the First 25 Years of Portuguese Settlement at Macau

Abstract

This article employs the methodology of constitutional ethnography to sketch the nascent constitutional order that developed at Macau during the first 25 years of Portuguese settlement (1553-1588). It traces Macau’s rapid rise from povoação (village settlement) to feitoria (unincorporated trading outpost) to incorporated conselho (town hall municipality) within the constitutional order of the Portuguese maritime empire. It also outlines Macau’s parallel rise from obscurity within the Chinese empire: from a pair of unremarkable fishing villages to an incorporated municipality under the Xiangshan County Magistracy of Ming-era Guangdong Province. In addition to reconstructing the governance norms of this era (which led to 200 years of legislative supremacy within the local separation of powers), and demonstrating the roots of Macau’s centuries-old privileging in an autonomous “OCTS” relationship, it also aims to retrace the origins contained in the modern Macau Basic Law whose roots lie here, yet are taken for granted.