TOWARDS A PEOPLE DRIVEN CONSTITUTION REMARKS AT THE BOCONGO WORKSHOP (14 9 21) (original) (raw)

Constitution-making in the 21st century

International Review of Law

Constitutions have been made or changed in major ways in more than half the countries of the world in recent decades. This article deals with contemporary approaches to constitution-making, organising the analysis around three key phases: setting the agenda, in terms of both substance and process; design, drafting and approval; and implementation. It argues that, while all constitutionmaking processes are different, there are some distinctive features of constitution-making in the 21st century that include popular participation, the need to build trust, internationalisation in its various forms and the importance of process. The article canvasses examples of constitution-making practices that have been or are likely to be influential. It identifies and briefly explores some of the key tensions in constitution-making between, for example, international involvement and domestic ownership of a Constitution and public participation and leadership.

Practical Considerations for Public Participation in Constitution-Building: What, When, How and Why?

2021

Public participation has become a core element of modern constitution-building. Robust participation is credited with a range of benefits—from improving individual behaviours and attitudes to democracy to shaping elite bargaining dynamics, improving constitutional content, and strengthening outcomes for democracy and peace. Yet it is not well understood whether and how public participation can achieve these ends. Much of what we think we know about participatory constitution-building remains theoretical. No two processes are alike, and there is no agreed definition of what constitutes a ‘participatory process’. Yet national decision-makers must contend with the key question: What does a robust participation process look like for a particular country, at a particular time, in a particular context? What considerations and principles can be derived from comparative experience to guide decisions? This Policy Paper unpacks the forms and functions of public participation across different ...

Annual Review of Constitution-Building: 2018

2020

Since its launch in 2013 the Annual Review of Constitution-Building has become the leading resource for professionals and practitioners within the global constitution-building community. In many of the countries discussed in this sixth edition of the Annual Review, International IDEA has been working alongside national stakeholders and international partners to support sustainable and inclusive constitution-building processes. This highlights the reciprocal, mutually reinforcing strength of our Institute as both a knowledge producer and an assistance provider: we can know because we do, and we can do because we know. Drawing upon International IDEA's in-house expertise as well as our network of academics and practitioners in the field of constitution-building, the Annual Review is intended to provide a space to reflect on trends, developments and changes in constitutional design and processes around the world. Since constitutions are at the heart of peacebuilding, state-building, rule of law, human rights, inclusion, accountability and good governance, understanding these trends is highly relevant to the international democracy-support and development community. In addition to depicting the latest constitution-building trends and developments, I hope this edition will also reinvigorate the debate and contribute to new insights for more inclusive and sustainable constitution-building processes around the world.

The Citizen as Founder: Public Participation in Constitutional Approval

2008

Public involvement in constitution making is increasingly considered to be essential for the legitimacy and effectiveness of the process. It is also becoming more widespread, spurred on by constitutional advisors and the international community. Yet we have remarkably little empirical evidence of the impact of participation on outcomes. This essay reports hypotheses on the effect of one aspect of public participation in the constitution-making process - ratification - and surveys available evidence. We find some limited support for the optimistic view about the impact of ratification on legitimacy, conflict, and constitutional endurance.

Annual Review of Constitution-Building: 2019

2020

International IDEA would like to thank the individual colleagues who authored chapters in this Annual Review and the internal and external reviewers of those chapters. In addition, we would like to extend particular thanks to the international experts who contributed insightful thoughts and reflections on constitution-building over the past 10 years, which contributed to the chapter 'A decade of constitution-building processes: some reflections from international experts'. We are grateful for your time and support. This includes Anna Dziedzic,

Citizen as Founder: Public Participation in Constitutional Approval

Public involvement in constitution making is increasingly considered to be essential for the legitimacy and effectiveness of the process. It is also becoming more widespread, spurred on by constitutional advisors and the international community. Yet we have remarkably little empirical evidence of the impact of participation on outcomes. This essay examines hypotheses on the effect of one aspect of public participation in the constitution-making process -ratification- and surveys available evidence. We find some limited support for the optimistic view about the impact of ratification on legitimacy, conflict, and constitutional endurance.

The 2022 International Review of Constitutional Reform.

SSRN, 2023

This is the 3rd edition of The International Review of Constitutional Reform (ISBN: 978-1-7374527-4-4). The International Review of Constitutional Reform (IRCR) is a first-of-its-kind scholarly effort to gather jurisdictional reports--written by scholars and judges, often in collaboration--on all forms of constitutional revision around the world over the past year. This edition contains over 80 jurisdictional reports. Each report explains and contextualizes events in constitutional reform over the previous year in a given jurisdiction. Constitutional reform is defined broadly to include constitutional amendment, constitutional dismemberment, constitutional mutation, constitutional replacement and other events in constitutional reform, including the judicial review of constitutional amendments. In order to facilitate cross-jurisdictional comparison, all reports follow the same format: • “INTRODUCTION,” which offers a brief overview of the year in constitutional reform; • “PROPOSED, FAILED, AND SUCCESSFUL CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS,” which examines proposed constitutional reforms and explains the reasons for their failure or success; • “THE SCOPE OF REFORMS AND CONSTITUTIONAL CONTROL,” which evaluates the proposed reforms and explains whether they were the subject of constitutional review; • “LOOKING AHEAD,” which identifies the big questions that await the jurisdiction in the context of constitutional reform in the year or years ahead; and • “FURTHER READING,” which recommends relevant readings for those interested in learning more about the reforms discussed in the report. The IRCR is a joint initiative of the Program on Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in partnership with the International Forum on the Future of Constitutionalism. The Co-Editors of this new resource in the study of constitutions have worked closely with an outstanding team of Associate Editors: Elisa Boaventura, Maria Letícia Borges, Bruno Cunha, Matheus Depieri, Júlia Frade, and David Sobreira. We thank each of them for their invaluable contributions to this project. We also thank Simon Renwick for his innovation, precision, and vision in designing this book. And most of all we thank our contributors for their outstanding reports.

Popular facets of constitution-making and constitution-amendment powers

2018

1. By way of introduction: people as constitutional authority – a never-ending saga. – 2. The founding of the Bel Paese and the Italian People – 2.1. Tridimensional legitimacy of the Italian republic – 2.1.1. Legal perspective – 2.1.2. Republican perspective – 2.1.3. – Democratic perspective – 2.2. The People in the Formal Constitutional Amendment Process – 2.2.1. Rules of change and their interpretation in the italian legal system – 2.2.2. People’s amending power: theory and practice – 2.2.3. (Un)Constitutionality and the role of the Constitutional court – 3. Endeavors of popular constitutional review – 4. By way of conclusion: constituent power within (un)constitutional conundrum.