The Reservation Model

2020 ◽  
pp. 244-275
Author(s):  
Ngoc Son Bui
Keyword(s):  
Living Conditions ◽  
Local People ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Progressive Change ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
Constitution Making

In a national referendum on February 24, 2019, Cubans overwhelmingly ratified a new constitution after an extensive process of public constitutional debates and consultation. This chapter focuses on the process and substances of the 2019 constitution-making. It demonstrates that the 2019 Constitution introduces progressive change to improve the socialist constitutional system and material wellbeing of the living conditions of the local people. Compared with the four other socialist countries this book considers, Cuba is characterized by the reservation model of socialist constitutional change. Constitutional change reserves unique features of Cuban Caribbean Marxism: the revolutionary commitment to communism and the praxis of “socialist democracy” in the form of mass rallies, consultations, and referenda. The adherence to Cuban Caribbean Marxism informs and legitimatizes the process and substances of constitutional change in this country.

Shaping Presidential Powers in Hungary: Convention, Tradition and Informal Constitutional Amendments

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 307-320
Author(s):  
Attila Vincze
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Exact Role ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Fundamental Law ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
Presidential Systems ◽  
Judicial Interpretations

Abstract There was no tradition of a republican president in Hungary before the fall of communism, and the transitory constitution of 1989 was unclear about the exact role the President should play in the constitutional system of Hungary. Some provisions even resembled those of presidential or semi-presidential systems; some ambiguities were clarified during the first two decades after the transition. Conventions, however, were established to some extent and sometimes very quickly. This period gave rise to guidelines as to how the powers of the President should be exercised. Some other powers were concretized and interpreted foremost by the Constitutional Court. These conventions and judicial interpretations formed the character of the Presidency to the extent of informal constitutional change. Some of these elements have even been incorporated into and formalized by the new Fundamental Law of Hungary. The present contribution will point out how the originally broad competencies of the President have been narrowed in the practice, and what role the Constitutional Court and political actors played in this process.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Silvia Suteu
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Interpretation ◽  
Constitutional Adjudication ◽  
Constitution Making

This chapter reviews the growing literature on constitutional unamendability and provides a unique analysis of unamendability in democratic constitutionalism. It looks at the democratic challenge of eternity clauses that goes beyond the old tension between constitutionalism and democracy. It also assesses unamendability in constitution-making and constitutional interpretation. This chapter reveals how eternity clauses are a far more ambivalent constitutional mechanism than hitherto understood, which has greater and more insidious potential for abuse. It offers a novel look at unamendability in democratic constitutions by placing the rise of eternity clauses in the context of other significant trends in recent constitutional practice, such as the rise of participatory constitutional change and the transnational embeddedness of constitution-making and constitutional adjudication.

Socialist Constitutional History

2020 ◽  
pp. 86-138
Author(s):  
Ngoc Son Bui
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Institutional Adjustment ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
Constitutional Identity ◽  
Constitution Making

This chapter examines constitutional history in the five socialist countries. Their constitutional history can be analytically divided into three periods: pre-socialist, Soviet-era, and transitional. During the pre-socialist period, the five countries had their own constitutional history, which was predominantly informed by traditional values (e.g. Confucianism in China, Vietnam, and Korea, and Buddhism in Laos) and liberal modern values, although some socialist ideas were also partially adopted in some cases, such as the 1946 Constitution of Vietnam. In the Soviet era, except for the belated constitution-making in Laos, the four other countries made, replaced, or amended the socialist constitutions which were predominantly informed by five elements of socialist constitutional identity. Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the five countries adapted their socialist constitutional system in the early 1990s in a transition with three separate elements: independent states, economic reforms, and institutional adjustment. The examination of socialist constitutional history has implications for comparative constitutional history.

Part I Foundations, Ch.5 Evolution

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny Susan
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Constitutional Evolution ◽  
Constitutional System ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

This chapter is about Australian constitutional evolution. It concerns the meaning, the processes, and the possibilities of constitutional change in Australia. ‘Constitutional evolution’ here means the transformation of the Australian constitutional system from its original form in 1901 into different forms until it reached the form we know today, by an aggregation of changes over time. These changes have mostly occurred in the constitutional space for which the written Constitution originally provided, with the result that, from 1901 until now, the Constitution has provided the framework for the Australian federation. The Constitution, as enacted by the British Parliament and as formally amended by popular referenda, has been critical to this evolutionary process; but the changes in the constitutional system, though consistent with the written text, have not been required by it.

scholarly journals Constitutional Change: Towards Better Human Rights Protection in Australia

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 248
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Legal Scholar ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Constitutional System

Many legal scholars contend that Australia does not have a charter of rights in its Constitution. The legal scholar Rosalind Dixon, however, suggests that the Constitution does include some provisions that could be viewed as resembling a (partial) bill of rights. This constitutional framework might cause one to ponder whether human rights are adequately protected in the Australian constitutional system. This paper attempts to consider this question. It is argued that the protection of human rights under the Constitution, federal and state laws is not fully capable of responding to at least three human rights crises presented. Accordingly, the paper suggests that Australia should consider the idea of amending the Constitution in order to better human rights protection in the country. It offers suggestion that the Canadian model protection of human rights could be considered as one of the primary sources for reforms in the future.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 341-346
Author(s):  
Ngoc Son Bui
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Economic Institutions ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
End Of History ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
The End Of History

This conclusion summarizes trends and major points in socialist constitutional change, and addresses broader implications. The socialist constitutions’ history or progress indicates the trend to incremental adaption of core socialist constitutional institutions. In some case, socialist constitutional change leads to partial adoption of some institutions of liberal democracy and market economy. But, the resistance to institutions of liberal constitutional democracy is also vehement in several cases. In addition, the divergence between socialist and liberal political and economic institutions is increasingly sharp. This institutional divergence is mainly due to socialist and local constitutional innovation. The partial adaption, resistance, and local innovation suggest that socialist constitutional change has not converged with “the end of history.” The socialist constitutions are increasingly dissonant documents, which is the condition for continuing evolution of the socialist constitutional order. Socialist constitutional change is connected to the broader global constitutional landscape. Constitutional change to improve the material wellbeing of living conditions is a part of human development.

The Process of Constitutional Amendment: Law, History, and Politics

1986 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 16-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Dellinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Constitutional System

The first part of the seminar examined a mystery that reverberates through two centuries: how does a constitutional system of government, itself born of revolution, properly provide for its own revision — provide literally for its own reconstitution? We first considered the political and intellectual assumptions against which Article V of the United States Constitution — the amendment article — was drafted, and then looked briskly at the historical context in which the Constitution's twenty-six amendments have been adopted. With this as background, we addressed a range of issues concerning the law and policy of constitutional change that are currently the subject of lively dispute in America.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document