State Constitution-Making

2021 ◽  
pp. 32-53
Author(s):  
Gordon S. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
State Constitution ◽  
Mother Country ◽  
Constitutional Conventions ◽  
Constitution Making

This chapter describes the constitution-making by the thirteen independent republics. Most of them created bicameral legislatures, single executives, and independent judiciaries. They set forth the idea of separation of powers, which forbade members of the legislature or judiciary from simultaneously holding office in the executive, thus setting American constitutional development off in a very direction from that of the former mother country. At the same time, the Americans established written constitutions that were different from and superior to the institutions of government and they worked out devices (constitutional conventions) for creating these constitutions. Several of the constitutions had bills of rights.

Part I State Constitutions in American Constitutional Federalism, 2 The Pre-federal State Constitutions: The Founding Decade

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Williams Robert F
Keyword(s):  
Federal State ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
State Constitutions ◽  
State Constitution ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
Federal Constitutional ◽  
Constitutional Conventions ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
The Way ◽  
Constitution Making

Most of the American states adopted constitutions in the decade prior to the federal constitutional convention. There were two major “waves” of state constitution-making. The first wave was hasty, generally not based on elected constitutional conventions, and the constitutions had little in the way of checks and balances. The chapter uses the Pennsylvania constitution to illustrate this wave. The second wave was more deliberate, often utilized elected constitutional conventions, and developed constitutions with more in the way of checks and balances. The Massachusetts constitution is used to illustrate this wave. Early constitution-making in each of the states is briefly reviewed, in light of these differing philosophies. Finally, the chapter reviews the influences of this “founding decade” of state constitution-making on the development of the federal Constitution, concluding that the Pennsylvania example was rejected and in Massachusetts example was adopted.

Recent Developments in the Ukrainian Judicial System and the Impact of International and European Law

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Tiede ◽  
Oscar Rennalls
Keyword(s):  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Current Reform ◽  
The Impact

Ukraine’s judicial system is still shackled by its Soviet past. Despite gaining independence in 1991, it is not surprising that this new sovereign state could not usher in overnight a new judicial system firmly based on the rule of law and the separation of powers. The author assesses current reform efforts in the Ukrainian justice sector in light of several European Union and Council of Europe recommendations for further steps in the constitutional development of Ukraine. Key reforms are analysed including the implications of the “small justice reform” of 2002 and the draft law on the judiciary and the status of judges. As Ukraine does not have an explicit strategy on Justice and Home Affairs, which makes any such analysis of recent justice reforms more difficult, its obligations in this area under several EU-Ukraine treaties and joint projects will be analysed.

scholarly journals Russian Constitutional Development: Formal and Informal Practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 100-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Medushevskiy
Keyword(s):  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
True Choice ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
Legal Strategies ◽  
Transitional Constitutionalism ◽  
Political Settlement

Transitional constitutionalism remains the subject of intensive political controversy. Based on a project made possible by the Institute of Law and Public Policy (Moscow) this article presents the analysis of the basic constitutional principles of pluralism, the separation of powers, federalism, the independence of the judiciary and the guarantee of political rights and freedoms. It describes the changing character of their implementation in different areas of constitutional practices – legislation, constitutional justice, administrative activities and informal practices, and the comparative level of constitutional deviations in each of them. The important new expertise of this research is the concept and methodology of the constitutional monitoring and recommendations for full-scale reforms in key areas of Russian constitutional and political settlement. The author shows that the true choice facing modern society is not between constitutionalism or its negation, which is a dilemma, but between real and sham constitutionalism, with a wide variety of intermediate options separating them. It is precisely this intermediate area which the author defines as a transitional type of constitutionalism, the field of collision between different political stakeholders. This is an area of unstable equilibrium where the implementation of different legal strategies and technologies may produce a definitive effect.

Part 4 Constitutionalism and Separation of Powers, 4.3 The Separation of Powers in a Fragmented State: The Case of Lebanon

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koch Cordelia
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Political System ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
Consociational Democracy ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
Feudal Lord ◽  
Family Based

This chapter analyzes the Lebanese Constitution in the light of consociational democracy. It begins with an overview on the political system to highlight the formal consensus requirements based on affiliation with one of the main religious groups in the country. It examines the evolution of confessional power-sharing, which is supplemented by the traditional family-based feudal lord system. It then explores the historical interplay of state-building, civil wars, and existing political frictions which still contribute to what the Lebanese Constitution is about today. Next, the chapter outlines the constitutional development regarding consociational democracy, emphasizing the different consensus-mechanisms now incorporated in the written constitution. This shows how the Lebanese political system diverges from the classical Montesquieu system and creates its own separation of powers through consensus mechanisms.

scholarly journals Constitution-Making in the Informal Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and Inner Asia, 1945–1955

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Sablin
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Soviet Empire ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Second World ◽  
Constitution Making

This chapter provides an overview of dependent constitution-making under one-party regimes in Albania, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, North Korea, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia during the first decade after the Second World War. Employing and further developing the concept of the informal Soviet empire, it discusses the structural adjustments in law and governance in the Soviet dependencies. The chapter outlines the development of the concepts of “people’s republic” and “people’s democracy” and discusses the process of adoption and the authorship of the constitutions. It then compares their texts with attention to sovereignty and political subjectivity, supreme state institutions, and the mentions of the Soviet Union, socialism, and ruling parties. Finally, it surveys the role of nonconstitutional institutions in political practices and their reflection in propaganda. The process of constitution-making followed the imperial logic of hierarchical yet heterogeneous governance, with multiple vernacular and Soviet actors partaking in drafting and adopting the constitutions. The texts ascribed sovereignty and political subjectivity to the people, the toilers, classes, nationalities, and regions, often in different combinations. Most of the constitutions established a parliamentary body as the supreme institution, disregarding separation of powers, and introduced a standing body to perform the supreme functions, including legislation, between parliamentary sessions, which became a key element in the legal adjustment. Some constitutions mentioned socialism, the Soviet Union, and the ruling parties. The standardization of governance in the informal Soviet empire manifested itself in the constitutional documents only partially. Propaganda and archival documents revealed the prominence of nonconstitutional institutions, parties and leaders, as well the involvement of Soviet representatives in state-building. Domestic parties and leaders in the Soviet dependencies were also presented as subordinate to their Soviet counterparts in propaganda.

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