Constitutions and Change: Towards a Typology of Transition for the Arab World
John Morison
Professor of Jurisprudence – School of Law – Queen’s University Belfast – UK
Abstract:
This paper develops briefly a general account of constitutional change from revolution to revision before going on to explore a number of “constitutional moments” and how change is effected then. Taking three particular issues presently outstanding in the United Kingdom that perhaps amount to continuing constitutional moments (in the loosest sense) the account focuses on the experience of the transition in Northern Ireland to develop an understanding of how models of transitional constitutionalism can work in a particular context of conflict.Finally, the paper considers very briefly how some ideas about transitional justice and transitional constitutionalism might find particular challenges in being applied directly in the Arab context.