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Abstract
The objective of this note is to report on a concept of constitution put forward by Alvaro D’Ors in an unpublished personal letter —something different from the concepts he used to employ. D’Ors was not by profession a promoter of constitutional law, but he too had his view of the constitution because, although he was not a democrat, he certainly was, one way or another, a constitutionalist. The double interest in the concept hereby commented on lies in its being one of the latest (not the last) meanings of constitution he put down on paper and in its turning out to be more "liberal" than other meanings he used to deal with. D’Ors would oppose the political and economic liberalism, but he would also oppose tyranny and the enormous growth of state power. The concepts of constitution he defended the most were two: the constitution as a decision and the constitution as a people’s way of being; neither is the one used in the letter hereby discussed. Among other features, he stands out because of (i) his constitutional notion as a pact concerning the limits of power; (ii) the difference between constitution and state; and (iii) the fact that the constitution defines duties for the governors, not for the governed. Besides, constitutions should not make up the ethics of a political community, nor should they play the role of ethical codes or set of values made positivistic.