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Letting off steam: Interim constitutions as a safety valve to the pressure-cooker of transitions in conflict-affected states?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2017

CHARMAINE RODRIGUES
CHARMAINE RODRIGUES*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC3010, Australia
*
†Email: [email protected]
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Abstract:

Recent years have seen considerably more attention being given to constitution-making as a field of deliberate study and practice, particularly with regard to the challenges and opportunities posed by constitution-making in conflict-affected states. A consequence of this work has been a more explicit recognition of the interconnectedness of peace processes and constitutional processes as mechanisms of political settlement. Within this context, this article argues for the more deliberate use of interim constitutions as a peacebuilding mechanism with potential to be effective in highly divided contexts in grounding a more inclusive and sustainable political settlement. This article argues that while interim constitutions are indeed commonly found in conflict-affected contexts, their use appears ad hoc and their design poorly conceived. The article reflects upon the potential strengths and weaknesses offered by interim constitutions in fragile and conflict-affected states. Reflecting on both the existing scholarship and the author’s own practical field experience, the article concludes that if a more modest and realistic approach to what constitution-making can achieve in fragile and conflict-affected states is coupled with more attention to design, interim constitutions can provide space and time to undertake more comprehensive discussions regarding the longer-term settlements.

Keywords

interim constitutionpeacebuildingpolitical settlementpost-conflict constitution-making
Type
Special Issue: Constitution-making and political settlements in times of transition
Information
Global Constitutionalism , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 33 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

Former UNDP constitutional assistance and political dialogue specialist. Currently, an inclusive and accountable governance consultant and a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne Law School. I wish to thank Professor Christine Bell, Edinburgh Law School, University of Edinburgh, for her generous guidance and editorial support.

References

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3 ‘Completion’ of the transition has often been proxied with the holding of national elections, with a new constitution being considered a precedent step, in order to set in place transformational post-conflict political arrangements before holding elections for a new executive and/or parliament.

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19 Varol (n 4) 412.

20 IDEA (n 7).

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22 Hart (n 4) 153.

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27 Ludsin (n 7) 288. (‘The primary advantage of a multistage process is that an interim constitution can secure the immediate constitutional changes necessary for a cease-fire without rushing into a final drafting process and sacrificing long-term constitutional goals. An interim process allows negotiators room to address immediate crises without entrenching provisions for governance that would be inappropriate for a stable and representative state.’)

28 Benomar (n 12).

29 Ibid.

30 Ibid 6.

31 Interim Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 200 of 1993) Schedule 4 – Constitutional Principles of the Interim Constitution.

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34 Ex Parte Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly: In the Certification of the Amended Text of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, 1997(2) AS 97 (CC); 1997 (1) BCLR 1 (CC); see also IDEA (n 33).

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56 Central African Republic Constitution of 2013, art 102.

57 Agence France-Presse, ‘C. African parliament starts work on new constitution’ ReliefWeb online, 14 March 2014, <http://reliefweb.int/report/central-african-republic/c-african-parliament-starts-work-new-constitution>.

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