Suchergebnisse

Over 1975-2003 nearly 200 new constitutions were drawn up in countries at risk of conflict, as part of peace processes and the adoption of multiparty political systems. The process of writing constitutions is considered to be very important to the chances of sustaining peace, and The Commonwealth and the US Institute for Peace have developed good practice guidelines in this area. These emphasize consultation, openness to diverse points of view and representative ratification procedures. But assessing the impact of constitution-writing processes on violence is methodologically difficult, since there are many channels of influence in the relationship. This paper reports on preliminary findings from an ongoing research project into the effects of processes in constitution-writing. Regression analysis is used to control for important contextual features such as differences in income levels and ethnic diversity across countries. A key finding is that differences in the degree of participation in the drafting of constitutions has no major effect on post-ratification levels of violence in some parts of the world, such as Europe, but does make a difference in Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific together. – constitutions ; Commonwealth ; democracy ; governance

Constitutions : writing nations, reading difference -- Theorising constitutional texts -- 'In the name of God and of the dead generations' : proclaiming the Irish Republic -- 'The treaty always speaks' : reading the Treaty of Waitangi / Te Tiriti o Waitangi -- 'Fracturing the skeleton' of the law : the Mabo decision and the re-constitution of Australia -- Conjuring spectres : location in the constitution of Britain in its post-imperial moment -- Re-reading constitutional texts.

Introduction / Asli U. Bali and Hanna Lerner -- The curious case of religion in the Norwegian Constitution / John Madeley -- Religion and the Japanese Constitution / Helen Hardacre -- Constitution making and religion in West Germany in the shadow of state failure / Tine Stein -- Secularism in a sectarian society : the divisive drafting of the 1926 Lebanese Constitution / Mark Farha -- The Constitution of a "laic" African and Muslim country : Senegal / Soulaymane Bachir Diagne -- Constitution writing and religious divisions in Turkey / Ergun Ozbudun -- Constitutionalism, Islamic law, and religious freedom in post-independent Indonesia / Mirjam Kunkler -- Cross-cutting rifts in constitutions and minority rights : India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka / Shylashri Shankar -- Islamic law in an Islamic Republic : what role for parliament? / Matthew Nelson -- Constitutional impasse, democracy and religion in Israel / Hanna Lerner -- Islam and constitutionalism in the Arab world : the puzzling course of Islamic inflation / Nathan Brown -- The politics of sacred paralysis : Islam in recent Moroccan and North African constitutions / David Mednicoff -- Dancing by the cliff : constitution writing in post-revolutionary Tunisia, 2011-2014 / Nadia Marzouki -- Designing constitutions in religiously divided societies / Asli U. Bali and Hanna Lerner.

AbstractUntil recently there has been relatively little attention paid to the question of how the relationship between the state, its citizens and the nation is articulated in constitutional texts. This paper seeks to address this gap through an examination of how the rules of belonging to the nation are discussed by the political elite and how these discussions find their final formulation in the constitutional texts. The analysis focuses on the Turkish case at two constitution‐writing moments (1924 and 1961). While such moments have conventionally been assumed to be 'revolutionary', the data on Turkey highlights continuities rather than radical changes over time. More particularly, it underscores the resilience and salience of the principle of nationalism over time.

The article addresses the puzzle of how societies still grappling over the common values and shared vision of their state draft a democratic constitution. It argues that an incrementalist approach to constitution-making enabled such deeply divided societies to enact either a written constitution or function with a material constitution by deferring controversial choices regarding the foundational aspects of the polity to future political institutions. It demonstrates how various types of incrementalist constitutional strategies -- such as avoidance of clear decisions, the use of ambivalent and vague legal language, or the inclusion of contrasting provisions in the constitution -- were deployed in the constitutional drafting of three deeply divided societies: India, Ireland and Israel. By importing the existing ideational conflicts into their constitutions, and by deviating from the common perception of constitution-making as a revolutionary moment, the framers in these three cases enabled their constitutions to reflect the divided identity of 'the people'. Adapted from the source document.

ABSTRACT.The article addresses the puzzle of how societies still grappling over the common values and shared vision of their state draft a democratic constitution. It argues that an incrementalist approach to constitution‐making enabled such deeply divided societies to enact either a written constitution or function with a material constitution by deferring controversial choices regarding the foundational aspects of the polity to future political institutions. It demonstrates how various types of incrementalist constitutional strategies – such as avoidance of clear decisions, the use of ambivalent and vague legal language, or the inclusion of contrasting provisions in the constitution – were deployed in the constitutional drafting of three deeply divided societies: India, Ireland and Israel. By importing the existing ideational conflicts into their constitutions, and by deviating from the common perception of constitution‐making as a revolutionary moment, the framers in these three cases enabled their constitutions to reflect the divided identity of 'the people'.