Additional Reading and Resources

PEACEMAKING AND CONSTITUTION-DRAFTING: A DYSFUNCTIONAL MARRIAGE

This article seeks to challenge a potentially dangerous assumption that constitution-drafting is an appropriate peacemaking tool in countries suffering from on-going violent conflict. A recent trend in conflict resolution is to use constitution-drafting as a form of peace negotiation and the resultant constitution as a peace treaty, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Nepal. Policy-makers simply assume that the goals and needs of constitution-drafting and peacemaking are compatible. On closer examination, however, while theoretically the goals and needs of the two processes can be harmonized, in practice, a combined constitution-drafting/peacemaking process causes deep, inherent tensions to erupt that make it far too likely that peacemaking needs will subordinate constitution-drafting goals. In doing so, the merged process not only risks the failure of the constitution but also risks renewing violence. When warring parties demand constitutional change to secure peace, however, it may be impossible to prevent the merger. This article concludes that the best way to salvage this peacemaking tool is through an interim constitutional process that allows parties to make the immediate constitutional change necessary for a cease-fire in a temporary constitution while giving society the room to meet constitutional needs when drafting a permanent constitution.

Click here to read Peacemaking and Constitution-making: A Dysfunctional Marriage.

Democratic constitution-making bodies: The perils of a partisan convention

Constituent conventions have traditionally occupied a privileged position within normative theories of constitution-making. It is claimed that compared to a constituent legislature, an assembly specially commissioned to write a constitution is better able to reflect citizens’ preferences and promote an impartial constitutional design. This article argues that the superiority of conventions over any type of constituent legislature has no support on either theoretical or empirical grounds. It also proposes that conventions may incur significant risks when a constitution is replaced within a democratic regime. Conventions often transgress their man- date by asserting their right to express or submit their decisions to the legally unbound power of the people. This claim to incarnate or represent the sovereign popular will increases the likelihood of conflicts between the convention and established institutions and, most crucially for the preservation of democracy, facilitates the use of this body by a dominant political group to legitimize its capture of state power. These arguments are supported with a critical analysis of the alleged virtues of conventions, a discussion of the history and theory of these bodies in the USA, and a comparative study of recent cases of constitutional replacement by conventions in Latin America.

Click here to read Democratic Constitution-Making Bodies: The Perils of a Partisan Convention

NGOs Working on Constitutions

  • International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) - The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide. It develops, share and facilitate the use of comparative knowledge in our key areas of competence: electoral processes, constitutional construction, political participation and representation, and democracy and development. It also addresses the important issues of gender, diversity, and conflict and security in relation to how they relate to democracy. IDEA works upon invitation to provide in-country support based on our global comparative knowledge. IDEA facilitates dialogue on issues of democracy and publish comparative data and knowledge for anyone to use to improve their democracy and analyses this data and produce several tools that can be used to strengthen democratic institutions.

  • Inclusive Security - Inclusive Security’s mission is to increase the participation of all stakeholders—particularly women—in preventing, resolving, and restoring after deadly conflicts. Inclusive Security equips women to contribute effectively to peace processes, builds coalitions of diverse leaders who offer practical solutions to intractable conflicts, and provides research on why inclusion matters and guidance on how it can be achieved. Inclusive Security frequently publishes updates, articles, and reports analyzing women’s roles in constitution-drafting.

  • Interpeace: Constitution-Making for Peace Programme - The goal of Interpeace’s Constitution-Making for Peace Program is to support constitution-making processes that lead to a more durable peace. The program promotes the principles of local ownership, inclusion, gender equality, participation and transparency. The program supports local actors in the design and implementation of participatory and inclusive constitution-making processes. It also supports policies that promote the goals of the program. A core element of our work on constitution-making is to promote guidance and knowledge tools that are freely accessible to constitution-making practitioners.

  • International Association of Constitutional Law - The overriding objective of the IACL is to provide a forum in which constitutionalists from all parts of the world can begin to understand each other’s systems, explain and reflect on their own, and engage in fruitful comparison, for a variety of purposes. To this end, the Association endeavors to ensure that its processes and activities are suited to its diverse membership, whilst at the same time retaining the scientific and scholarly approach on which the credibility of its work depends.

Blogs on Post-Conflict Constitutions

  • ICON-nect - I·CONnect is the blog of the International Journal of Constitutional Law. It is a forum for thoughtful analysis of major issues in the field of comparative constitutional law. It produces updates on important new constitutional cases, amendments, constitution-making efforts and other new developments. It also features discussions of scholarship in the field, including book reviews, debates and responses to articles that appear in I-CON.

  • International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Blog - The International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) Blog aims to provide a forum for constitutionalists around the world to present their research, share their views, and discuss crucial constitutional law topics, as well as overlooked issues and more technical discussions of constitutional law. It aims not only to respond to constitutional law developments, but also to frame important debates,  provide much-needed context, make useful links between different developments, and look ahead to what constitutional developments may take place in the future. 

  • Inclusive Security Blog - Inclusive Security’s mission is to increase the participation of all stakeholders—particularly women—in preventing, resolving, and restoring after deadly conflicts. Inclusive Security equips women to contribute effectively to peace processes, builds coalitions of diverse leaders who offer practical solutions to intractable conflicts, and provides research on why inclusion matters and guidance on how it can be achieved. Inclusive Security’s Blog frequently publishes on women’s roles in constitution-drafting.

Databases for Post-Conflict Constitutions

  • The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law - The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (MPECCoL) is a comprehensive online resource containing analytical comparative articles offering a global overview of constitutional law. Developed with constitutional lawyers, academics, and students in mind, the encyclopedia provides seamless navigation between encyclopedia articles, linking to commentaries and instruments from the Oxford Constitutions of the World and US Constitutional Law products, and through reference pages on the Oxford Law Citator.

  • Constitute - Constitute is a website that contains a richly indexed set of texts for nearly every national constitution in the world. It is run by the Comparative Constitutions Project.

  • The PA-X Peace Agreement Database - The PA-X Peace Agreement Database is a database and repository of peace agreements from 1990 to date hosted by the University of Edinburgh. Agreements in the database are coded for content such as constitution-drafting, and it can be searched for peace agreements that contain provisions related to post-conflict constitutions. PA-X provides a comprehensive dataset of peace agreements from 1990 to the end of 2018, capable of underpinning both quantitative and qualitative research. PA-X also publishes reports on various themes related to peace negotiations, agreements, and post-conflict peace building.

  • Peace Accords Matrix - The Peace Accords Matrix project hosts a database of peace agreements from 1989. It also has the largest existing collection of data on the implementation of peace agreements. Each peace agreement in the database has a dozen or more content pages that sort the relevant provisions into topics areas such as “ceasefires” or “natural resource management” and provide a detailed timeline of the implementation of that section of the agreement. Many of the agreements in the database have content pages for constitutional reform with a timeline of the implementation of constitutional reform provisions.

  • Global Gender Equality Constitutional Database - The Global Gender Equality Constitutional Database is a repository of gender equality related provisions in 194 constitutions from around the world.

Comparative Constitution Projects

  • The Comparative Constitutions Project - The Comparative Constitutions Project produces comprehensive data about the world’s constitutions. The project was launched to answer a set of research questions about the origins and consequences of constitutional choices. These questions are of direct relevance to those revising constitutions, who often lack even the most basic information about constitutional provisions in other countries, past and present. The CCP aims to fill this informational gap by providing systematic data to comparative legal scholars for analysis long before they provide advice to constitution drafters. Since the project’s launch in 2005, the CCP has collected and analyzed thousands of constitutional texts and made that data publicly available.

  • ConstitutionNet - ConstitutionNet is a project created to support legislators, constitutional lawyers and other constitutional practitioners in finding useful and relevant information, sharing knowledge and building a community of best practice. Constitutionnet website features country profiles, primers, thematic publications, and an advanced search database. ConstitutionNet is an International IDEA (an IGO headquartered in Sweden) project developed and maintained with generous support from the Government of Norway. Full membership is restricted to active professionals currently working in the constitution building field, but large portions of the site are available to the public.

  • Constitution Writing and Conflict Resolution - Constitution Writing & Conflict Resolution is an online repository for information about the steps countries have taken to produce new constitutions since 1975. On the site, users will find overviews, short country studies, an ever-expanding number of background papers, datasets, bibliographies, and helpful links. The website includes over 190 country summaries as well as reports on special topics. The project is associated with a larger initiative undertaken by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to explore the linkages between constitution writing and conflict resolution.

  • Berghof Foundation - The Berghof Foundation is an organization that enables and supports learning processes that inspire the development of new perspectives, relationships, and behavior of those in conflict, thus opening possibilities for addressing conflict and finding ways of living together peacefully. The collection on the nexus of peacemaking and constitution building is a project designed to to raise awareness and understanding among practitioners, policymakers, and scholars of the ways in which constitution making relates to peace processes.