After 45 years of mundane employment, James Tully retired and took a holiday he had denied himself for many years. Upon travelling on a cruise ship which brought him to the Arctic Circle, he watched the blue sea pass before him and wrote the first draft of his first novel. He then spent six months rewriting the effort of those two weeks, mostly for the purpose of correcting spelling and punctuation.

Part I. Demands for Constitutional Recognition: 1. The constitutional question raised by the politics of cultural recognition: six examples and three similarities; 2. The mutual recognition of cultural diversity: three features of the common ground and three historical movements; 3. The spirit of Haida Gwaii as a symbol of the age of cultural diversity; 4. A constitutional dialogue in The spirit of Haida Gwaii; Part II. Diversity and Contemporary Constitutionalism: 5. Anwering the constitutional question: an outline; 6. Two languages of contemporary constitutionalism and the three schools of modern constitutionalism; 7. The challenge of post-modernism and cultural feminism; 8. The challenge of interculturalism; Part III. The Historical Formation of Modern Constitutionalism: The Empire of Uniformity: 9. Constitutions ancient and modern; 10. Seven features of modern constitutionalism; 11. Example of forging the seven features: Locke and Aboriginal peoples; 12. Vattel, Kant and their followers; [...] reform of diversity in Europe and the colonies; 14. The American revolution and the guardians of empire today; Part IV. The Historical Formation of Common Constitutionalism: The Rediscovery of Cultural Diversity, Part I: 15. The hidden constitutions of contemporary societies; 16. Understanding constitutionalism: Wittgenstein and Hale; 17. Examples of the three conventions: the Aboriginal and common-law system and the conventions of mutual recognition and consent; 18. The Aboriginal and common law system and the convention of continuity; [...] Aboriginal and common law system and constitutional dialogue; Part V. The Historical Formation of Common Constitutionalism: The Rediscovery of Cultural Diversity. Part II: 20. Diverse federalism and the conventions of mutual recognition, continuity and consent; 21. Diverse federalism and continuity: the Québec act and the ancient constitution; 22. Diverse federalism, the three conventions and the American revolution; 23. The modern attack on diverse federalism: the Durham report and its followers; 24. Linguistic minorities and the three conventions: the form of reasoning appropriate to mutual recognition and accommodation; 25. Intercultural citizens, gender differences and the three conventions; Part VI. Constitutionalism in an Age of Cultural Diversity: 25. A summary of contemporary constitutionalism; 26. Replies to four objections to contemporary constitutionalism; 27. Two public goods of contemporary constitutionalism: belonging and critical freedom; Conclusion: the philosophy and practice of contemporary constitutionalism; Notes; Bibliography; Index.