Constitutional Reforms

The model of governance bequeathed by Britain to the Caribbean has long been praised for ensuring that vibrant democratic practice has generally prevailed since the era of decolonisation. Yet it has also become increasingly clear that the Westminster system of politics, as it is applied to the region's tiny polities, has come to exhibit serious deficiencies and is in need of reform. The current government of St Vincent and the Grenadines has recently made a serious attempt to address the issue, engaging in an expansive process of public consultation and constitutional reform which was ultimately rejected by the populace in a referendum held in November 2009. This article seeks to analyse both the form and content of the constitutional reform process, situating it within broader debates about the Westminster Model itself.

The elected Senate and the party-list system are two institutional innovations of the 1997 Constitution designed to effect much-needed political reforms in Thailand. Nominally autonomous, both institutions were supposed to contribute to enhancing the quality of political leadership and representative democracy. I shed light on one ironic, unintended effect of these reforms – i.e., both institutions have allowed scores of political families with quite shady reputations to maintain or even tighten their grip on Parliament. Combining aggregate data and case studies, I show that a sizable number of elected senators and party-list MPs are related, by blood or marriage, to at least one MP elected in the post-1932 period of parliamentary politics. The well-intended reforms have concentrated parliamentary power in the hands of these politicians’ families, many of which represent the excesses of Thailand’s full-blown electoral democracy. The survival and resilience of these families diminish the character of political leadership and democracy by making corruption, clientelism, violence, electoral fraud, and other related problems all the more entrenched and by deepening dynastic rule that militates against political pluralism or inclusiveness.

Keywords: Thailand, 1997 Constitution, electoral reforms, Senate, party list, King Bhumibol, royalists, political families, political dynasties

Since the advent of Legal Education in Nigeria, the milestone it has recorded has been unprecedented. At a time the Nigerian Legal education sector was a one stop shop for the training of the best of minds on the African continent. Sadly, as the years went by, the same corruption and decay that had overran other sectors of education in the country quietly crept into the training of Nigerian Lawyers, so much so that by the turn of the new millennium, the situation had become alarming.

This Paper critically examines the past and the present of Legal education in Nigeria, drawing a parallel between the dreams of the founding fathers and what the current realities are. This Paper also juxtaposes same with the current legal framework, highlighting the many grey areas and junctures of dis-satisfactions. This Paper submits with far-reaching recommendations that mirror current trends in other advanced jurisdictions, advising that if any meaningful turn will be made in the journey ahead, then substantial and sustainable reforms are inevitable.

Esta investigación presenta un análisis político sobre lo que significó el desarrollo de los debates específicos para reformar el texto de la Constitución, específicamente, el conjunto de pugnas en torno al reglamento de debates, así como el complejo mapa sobre las esferas de influencia, el posicionamiento de los principales actores y el surgimiento de diversas disputas, vacilaciones e incertidumbres que caracterizaron al escenario constituyente en Bolivia en el periodo 2006-2007.

La reforma total de la Constitución se convirtió en una facultad exclusiva de la Asamblea Constituyente elegida para elaborar un nuevo orden político, pero cayó rápidamente en un barranco de diferentes incapacidades imaginando erróneamente que podía asegurar un “carácter originario” cuando la gran mayoría de los asambleístas no tenían ni la formación necesaria, ni la intención de llevar a cabo un conjunto de deliberaciones racionales y democráticas. Es precisamente aquí donde comenzaron ciertas confusiones y conflictos que llevó a la Asamblea Constituyente boliviana hacia un total fracaso.

On the basis of a centralized and hierarchical control of the territory,
Italian State was founded in the nineteenth century. The historical
process which concretely took place weakened the expectations of both
local administrations and the federalist supporters emerged during the
“Risorgimento”. The Author analyses the factors that provoked the development
of a centralized public administration in the liberal theory of
the State and in the totalitarian ideology of fascism. He also examines
the way scholars (interested in legal-administrative fields) recommended
some legal models based on “horizontal approach” concerning the
distribution of State-administrative powers. Taking into account a comparative-
historical perspective, and focusing the attention over XIX and
XX centuries, this paper aims at describing the contrasts between two
academic-juridical approaches, legal monism and legal pluralism. In this
sense, the Author identifies the way the Italian polycentrism has been
evolving, in terms of constitutional law, since Italy’s foundation.

Religious leaders have played a leading role in the struggle for constitutional reforms in Kenya since 1990s.Significantly, they have argued over time that the constitution is the covenant of the nation and the 'moral placenta' of any meaningful democratic governance. This article therefore sets out to examine the midwifery role of religious leaders in negotiating for constitutional reforms in an attempt at consolidating democratic gains achieved following the repeal of section 2A of the then constitution on 19 th December, 1991. The article is alive to the fact that the struggle for constitutional change in Kenya was an 'hybrid enterprise' which empirically cannot be analyzed by a single actor, entity or factor since many groups whether religious or civil society contributed in their own way in fighting for civil liberties and human rights. Methodologically, this is a retrospective-historical analysis of the contribution of the Church in the wider debate of constitutional making process between 1992 and 2002. The central question being addressed is on how the Church played out its activism in the glamour for constitutional reforms. It sets out on the premise that their activism towards constitutional reforms was undergirded by reconstruction paradigm as articulated by African Theo-philosophers such as Jesse Ndwiga Mugambi. Reconstruction paradigm is a theological trajectory that builds on the Ezra-Nehemiah motif. The article relies on archival sources as well as seven in-depth oral interviews with key informants.

RESUMEN Este artículo tiene tres objetivos: presentar las dificultades que plantea la exigibilidad del derecho a la salud en México; dar cuenta de los principales problemas que se están presentando en lo que podemos llamar relaciones entre derecho y salud y , por último, ofrecer algunas propuestas para alcanzar una relación eficaz entre ambas materias.
SUMMARY This article pursues three goals: to describe the obstacles that in Mexico faces the complete exigibility of the right to health, to present the main problems arising in what, generally speaking, could be referred to as "relations between law and health", and finally to offer some proposals in order to reach a working relation between the aforementioned disciplines.

Legal mechanisms governing the state of emergency can play an important role in authoritarian rule and post-revolutionary transition periods. Egypt has experienced the terror of a regime empowered by emergency law. In Tunisia, emergency law was not so much an issue before but rather after the Jasmine revolution. Given the importance of emergency regulations in both cases, this article provides brief process-oriented accounts of the constitutional reforms triggered by the Arab Spring. It furthermore takes a critical look at how Egypt and Tunisia have redesigned these norms in the latest constitutions of early 2014. On the basis of criteria regarding the rule of law and mechanisms of crisis governance in modern democracies, this article then analyses and evaluates the key elements regarding checks and balances pertaining to emergency regulations in the 2014 constitutions.

This article focuses on the reform policies enacted by Mohammed VI, king of Morocco, in response to the uprisings which took
place during the Arab Spring. The main thrust of the article centers on the reforms of the Constitution and on the role these
reforms played in providing a concrete response to the democratic demands put forward by the February 20th Movement. The
article presents an analysis of an extremely complex situation: Morocco is a country with specific political, social and religious
characteristics, ruled by a Sovereign who has been legitimized both politically and religiously, and with a constitution which has
been amended. The final objective is to understand whether the situation in Morocco has effectively changed or whether the
demands for democratization have simply been disregarded. The main question is still very much open; it concerns the new
Constitution and its ability to stem the progressive spread of protests throughout the Moroccan region. In terms of modus
operandi and the violence of the staked claims, such uprisings may well resemble those which spread across the entire north
African area.

The Turkish Armed Forces have played a key role in politics since the establishment of the republic in 1923. Despite the thorny relations between the civilian and military elites, the process of European integration played an extremely important role in bringing the country on a path of democratic reforms. Both opposing sides, namely the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Turkish Military (TSK), in the context of the ongoing process of European integration and a relatively high societal support for Turkey’s EU accession, seemed to accept more conciliatory approaches to each other (2001–2006). Unfortunately, starting from 2006, along with the rise of euroscepticism among Turks and the loosening of ties with the EU, the AKP and TSK adopted more antagonistic stances towards each other. The European Union and its institutions, which also influence constitutional changes in Turkey, therefore create an extremely important international context for democratisation.

Este ensayo aborda el análisis de la evolución del constitucionalismo mexicano al cumplirse cien años de vigencia de la Constitución Mexicana, que fue emitida en la Ciudad de Querétaro el 5 de febrero de 1917. El ensayo sostiene que la longevidad de esta Constitución se debe a la intensa actividad de los órganos legislativos mexicanos que ejercen la función de reforma constitucional, lo que ha aportado una gran plasticidad al texto escrito, favoreciendo la adaptación entre la norma fundamental y la evolución de la sociedad mexicana. Al mismo tiempo, el desarrollo del constitucionalismo mexicano, que históricamente había privilegiado la mirada política propia de los mencionados órganos legislativos, ha arribado a un reforzamiento del entendimiento jurídico de la Constitución. Esto conduce a admitir –en un nuevo entendimiento del constitucionalismo mexicano- la coexistencia entre el tradicional entendimiento político, que actúa a través de adaptaciones formales al texto constitucional, junto a una creciente presencia de los órganos judiciales que imprimen un sello claramente jurídico a la constitución mexicana, creando con ello un entorno de diálogos constitucionales entre las funciones de reforma constitucional y el control de la regularidad constitucional.

Some things come to us and become dominant in our search for truth, some things pass away. In communication these things are words, active vocabularies are under presure of changing. One key replaces another, and words appear and disappear. One of such word is stokhastikos, Greek in its origin. It has meaning accurate, ingenious, a piquant concept for individual who has courage to undertake travel to there I don'n know where, and bring from there that I don't know what.
This book deals with issues which are comlicated and unclear and foggy. It consists of three chapters.
First, The processes with uncertainty: How to control
Second, A Fourty-Five Time-Cycle Universe Picture Design
Third, Processes in experiences with uncertainty: How to approach?

Chile vive un momento intenso de debate sobre cambios constitucionales. En este trabajo describimos la posición de los actores asociadas al tema constitucional, abordando específicamente los tópicos que suscitan interés en ser cambiados de la actual Constitución (por la vía de reformas) o los aspectos esenciales que debiese considerar una nueva carta magna. Se argumenta que contrariamente a lo que podríamos esperar, existe un amplio campo de temas susceptibles de ser acordados por la élite política, particularmente desde sectores moderados de derecha y hasta sectores de izquierda del espectro político chileno. Siguiendo el patrón reciente de América Latina, las propuestas de cambio constitucional (por la vía de reformas o por el establecimiento de un nuevo pacto) enfatizan una atenuación de los poderes del Presidente, fortalecimiento de derechos políticos y sociales, reformas electorales inclusivas. Donde existe mayor discrepancia es en el rol del Estado, el rol de los organismos autónomos, y temas específicos vinculados con algunos derechos sociales. Realizamos este estudio a partir de informaciones de prensa, programas de gobierno de distintas candidaturas, y proyectos de ley presentados por diferentes agrupaciones políticas al proceso legislativo nacional.
El trabajo concluye que las posibilidades de establecer una nueva Constitución plantea un doble dilema: sobre el procedimiento para cambiar el texto constitucional y respecto de los contenidos que consideraría el nuevo texto. Se argumenta que existen algunas áreas relevantes de consenso político, aunque subsisten diferencias importantes en áreas muy sensibles. Lo que llama la atención es que la derecha, centro e izquierda política plantean una amplia gama de ámbitos a cambiar en la Constitución.

Religious leaders have played a leading role in the struggle for constitutional reforms in Kenya since 1990s.Significantly, they have argued over time that the constitution is the covenant of the nation and the ‘moral placenta’ of any meaningful democratic governance. This article therefore sets out to examine the mid-wifery role of religious leaders in negotiating for constitutional reforms in an attempt at consolidating democratic gains achieved following the repeal of section 2A of the then constitution on 19th December, 1991. The article is alive to the fact that the struggle for constitutional change in Kenya was an ‘hybrid enterprise’ which empirically cannot be analyzed by a single actor, entity or factor since many groups whether religious or civil society contributed in their own way in fighting for civil liberties and human rights. Methodologically, this is a retrospectivehistorical analysis of the contribution of the Church in the wider debate of constitutional making pro...

Tras recordar de forma sumaria algunas nociones elementales sobre la reforma como mecanismo que hace posible la adaptación de los textos constitucionales a las nuevas circunstancias y de abordar algunas cuestiones relativas al procedimiento, a los límites y al control de la misma, se entra a analizar el posible contenido de una reforma de la vigente Constitución española de 1978 (lo que urge o lo que conviene reformar) y su viabilidad política.

This article analyzes the process of constitutional reforms after the transition to democracy in Chile, observing the trade offs and political conditions that allowed for political change. The article examines why pro-status-quo right wing conservative parties decided to engage in negotiations to end up authoritarian enclaves after the transition.

This article deals with the suffrage system reform being attemted at the present. In the first part the conceptual matter referring to the normative character that the act of voting possesses and must possess is revised, assuming the premise that it is a right and not an obligation. It is concluded that there is no conceptual contradiction in the figure of a right which exercise is mandatory. In the second part, the arguments used to justify the need to reform the suffrage regime are revised, concluding that the principle reasons that should be on the base of this kind of decision have not been explicit.