Building The Constitution

"A Practical Guide to Constitution Building provides an essential foundation for understanding constitutions and constitution building. Full of world examples of ground-breaking agreements and innovative provisions adopted during processes of constitutional change, the Guide offers a wide range of examples of how constitutions develop and how their development can establish and entrench democratic values. Beyond comparative examples, the Guide contains in-depth analysis of key components of constitutions and the forces of change that shape them. The Guide analyzes the adoption of the substantive elements of a new constitution by looking at forces for the aggregation or dissemination of governmental power, and forces for greater legalization or politicization of governmental power, and examining how these forces influence the content of the constitution. It urges practitioners to look carefully at the forces at play within their individual contexts in order to better understand constitutional dynamics and play a role in shaping a constitution that will put into place a functioning democratic government and foster lasting peace."--

A revisionary account of the South African Constitutional Court, its working method and the neglected political underpinnings of its success.

Britain’s main imperial possessions in Asia were granted independence in the 1940s and 1950s and needed to craft constitutions for their new states. Invariably the indigenous elites drew upon British constitutional ideas and institutions regardless of the political conditions that prevailed in their very different lands. Many Asian nations called upon the services of Englishman and Law Professor Sir Ivor Jennings to advise or assist their own constitution making. Although he was one of the twentieth century’s most prominent constitutional scholars, his opinion and influence were often controversial and remain so due to his advocating British norms in Asian form. This book examines the process of constitutional formation in the era of decolonisation and state building in Asia. It sheds light upon the influence and participation of Jennings in particular and British ideas in general on democracy and institutions across the Asian continent. Critical cases studies on India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Nepal – all linked by Britain and Jennings – assess the distinctive methods and outcomes of constitution making and how British ideas fared in these major states. The book offers chapters on the Westminster model in Asia, Human Rights, Nationalism, Ethnic politics, Federalism, Foreign influence, Decolonisation, Authoritarianism, the Rule of Law, Parliamentary democracy and the power and influence of key political actors. Taking an original stance on constitution making in Asia after British rule, it also puts forward ideas of contemporary significance for Asian states and other emerging democracies engaged in constitution making, regime change and seeking to understand their colonial past. The first political, historical or constitutional analysis comparing Asia’s experience with its indelible British constitutional legacy, this book is a critical resource on state building and constitution making in Asia following independence. It will appeal to students and scholars of world history, public law and politics.

Joanne Wallis is a lecturer in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. She has previously taught at the University of Cambridge, the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University. She completed her PhD in politics and international studies at the University of Cambridge in 2011. From January 2009 to January 2012 she was an honorary Fellow of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. In 2006, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies at the University of South Carolina. She has also worked as a lawyer and has conducted research consultancies for Australian and international NGOs. Her research considers the role that constitution making plays in building states and nations in post-conflict societies, with a particular emphasis on the opportunities for engagement between liberal and local approaches to law, governance and development.

"A Practical Guide to Constitution Building provides an essential foundation for understanding constitutions and constitution building. Full of world examples of ground-breaking agreements and innovative provisions adopted during processes of constitutional change, the Guide offers a wide range of examples of how constitutions develop and how their development can establish and entrench democratic values. Beyond comparative examples, the Guide contains in-depth analysis of key components of constitutions and the forces of change that shape them. The Guide analyzes the adoption of the substantive elements of a new constitution by looking at forces for the aggregation or dissemination of governmental power, and forces for greater legalization or politicization of governmental power, and examining how these forces influence the content of the constitution. It urges practitioners to look carefully at the forces at play within their individual contexts in order to better understand constitutional dynamics and play a role in shaping a constitution that will put into place a functioning democratic government and foster lasting peace." -- Provided by publisher.

In 1949, United Nations Constitutional Assistance (UNCA) was conceived to promote the Western liberal constitution. This was colonial trusteeship. However, in 1960, as a step towards decolonization, the United Nations General Assembly rejected internationalized constitution-making, and, by extension, UNCA. All colonies acquired the right to draft their own constitutions without any international assistance. Nonetheless, in the same year, UNCA was revived and since then it has helped over 40 developing sovereign states to adopt the Western liberal constitution, for the aims of building peace, preventing conflict, and promoting good governance in these independent states. This book scrutinizes UNCA and its off-shoot, UN/International Territorial Administration (ITA), including their historical origins and revival from 1960 to 2019. Sripati argues that although the United Nations (UN) uses UNCA to help developing sovereign states secure debt relief, it undertakes UNCA to ‘modernize’ them with a view to ‘strengthen’ their supposedly weakened sovereignty. By doing so, the UN is seeking these states’ adoption of a Western liberal-style constitution, thus violating their right to self-determination. The book shows how UNCA sires and guides UN (legislative) assistance in all state-sectors: security, judicial, electoral, commercial, parliamentary, public administration, and criminal. Irrespective of UNCA’s benevolent motivations, such intrusive interventions impose the old forms of domination and perpetuate global inequality.

International IDEA’s Annual Review of Constitution-Building provides a retrospective account of constitutional transitions around the world, the issues that drive them, and their implications for national and international politics. This seventh edition covers events in 2019. Because this year marks the end of a decade, the first chapter summarizes a series of discussions International IDEA held with international experts and scholars throughout the year on the evolution of constitution-building over the past 10 years. The edition also includes chapters on challenges with sustaining constitutional pacts in Guinea and Zimbabwe; public participation in constitutional reform processes in The Gambia and Mongolia; constitutional change and subnational governance arrangements in Tobago and the Autonomous Region of Bangsamoro; the complexities of federal systems and negotiations on federal state structures in Myanmar and South Sudan; and the drawing (and redrawing) of the federal map in South Sudan and India. Writing at the mid-way point between the instant reactions of the blogosphere and academic analyses that follow several years later, the authors provide accounts of ongoing political transitions, the major constitutional issues they give rise to, and the implications of these processes for democracy, the rule of law and peace.