How Long Does it Take to Write a Constitution?
By Kevin
The People’s Special Majlis of the Maldives has been thrashing around ideas for a new constitution for around two years now -- with nary a written word, except for news releases -- although a lot of talk. The opposition has made a call for supporters to meet up in Male on November 10th. The ruling party has said that it will not meet with the opposition, and claims, as usual, that opposition demonstrators are criminals, etc. There's much more at the opposition-based Minivan News.
In short, THIS IS NOT GOOD.
But let's give the folks writing up the constitution the benefit of the doubt; maybe it takes a really long time to write up a constitution for a democracy.
In September 1786, a revision to the articles of confederation (which itself took months to draft, and years to ratify) was started. The finished U.S. constitution was ready one year later, on September 17, 1787. Ratification took some time, and the new government founded on it started operating until March 1789. Drafting time: a few months. Total time 2.5 years.
But that's old news. How about some recent data:
Members were appointed to draft the Iraqi constitution on May 12, 2005. The draft was modified by Parliament on September 18, 2005, and was ratified by referendum on October 15, 2005. Total time: five months
In Afghanistan, the Constitution Commission was stood up in October 2002, and ratification occurred on January 16, 2004. Drafting time: months. Total time: 1.5 years
But maybe U.S. occupation tends to speed up the constitution-writing process.
The proposed E.U. constitution took years to write (starting in December 2001, going through the first published draft in July 2003 to the final tweaking in June 2004). The ratification process is ongoing. Drafting time: years Total Time: at least 5 years.
The Maldives has had several constitutions. The 1930 one "contained 92 articles. It took exactly 1 year, 8 months and 22 days from the Sultan's decree to draft a Constitution to the ratification of the document."
Conclusion: it does not take years to write a constitution, unless you specialize in delay.