The term "constitutive element" is correct and usable in written English.
You could use it to refer to a fundamental or essential element of something. For example, "The constitutive elements of a democracy are the rule of law, universal suffrage, and the protection of civil liberties."
Symbols are a constitutive element of the history of our cities.
A constitutive element of this type of role is that the employee and her work should remain out of sight.
In this sense design is a constitutive element of both the environment and signal detection/use.
In a previous era, when neoliberal austerity was first being prepared in tandem with a racist, authoritarian crackdown, Greek political sociologist Nicos Poulantzas spoke of the "redeployment of legal-police networks" as a constitutive element in a new "authoritarian statism".
The "ongoing debate" about the origins of sexual attraction is leaning strongly toward the view that homosexuality is a constitutive element of one's identity, not a choice.
A framework of personal sexual ethics lacks a constitutive element if it does not include the principle of justice, not just in the playing out of interpersonal relationships, but in the way in which the faith community relates to and upholds respect for its lesbian and gay members.
A diverse media landscape and freedom of speech are constitutive elements of democracy.
And, though the natural order is unimaginably vast and complex, it is nonetheless possible to understand something of its basic constitutive elements and its universal laws.
It subsequently analyzes how new governance relates to the three constitutive elements of citizenship: participation, rights and belonging.
Often Christianity is imagined as transcending the human, in favour of some other realm, thereby betraying the constitutive elements of our humanity.
At a more profound level, geographical classifications are unacceptable because they have nothing to do with the essential constitutive elements of religion.
