Constitution-Making under UN Auspices

Description

In 1949, United Nations Constitutional Assistance (UNCA) was conceived to promote the Western liberal constitution. This was colonial trusteeship. However, in 1960, as a step towards decolonization, the United Nations General Assembly rejected internationalized constitution-making, and, by extension, UNCA. All colonies acquired the right to draft their own constitutions without any international assistance. Nonetheless, in the same year, UNCA was revived and since then it has helped over 40 developing sovereign states to adopt the Western liberal constitution, for the aims of building peace, preventing conflict, and promoting good governance in these independent states.

This book scrutinizes UNCA and its off-shoot, UN/International Territorial Administration (ITA), including their historical origins and revival from 1960 to 2019. Sripati argues that although the United Nations (UN) uses UNCA to help developing sovereign states secure debt relief, it undertakes UNCA to ‘modernize’ them with a view to ‘strengthen’ their supposedly weakened sovereignty. By doing so, the UN is seeking these states’ adoption of a Western liberal-style constitution, thus violating their right to self-determination. The book shows how UNCA sires and guides UN (legislative) assistance in all state-sectors: security, judicial, electoral, commercial, parliamentary, public administration, and criminal. Irrespective of UNCA’s benevolent motivations, such intrusive interventions impose the old forms of domination and perpetuate global inequality.

About the Author

Vijayashri Sripati is a visiting scholar at The University of Toledo, Ohio (2019–20). An expert on United Nations Constitutional Assistance (UNCA), she writes on topics at the intersection of constitutional law and human rights.

Reviews

‘A ground-breaking history of the globalization of constitutionalism…’

— David Singh Grewal, professor of law, University of California, Berkeley, United States

‘[E]xceptionally meticulous study of the way in which the UNCA has established one particular type of market-based constitution…’

— James Tully, emeritus distinguished professor of political science and law, University of Victoria, Canada

‘[A] much valued contribution to both students and practitioners of international law and international relations...’

— David Chandler, professor of international relations, University of Westminster, United Kingdom

‘This is an essential reading in many respects. Through an accurate, detailed and wonderfully documented analysis, V. Sripati depicts the parentage between contemporary discourses of the United Nations and those that presided over the colonial period.’

— Alicia Pastor y Camarasa, PhD Researcher at the University of Louvain

Table of contents

List of Tables and Figures

Foreword by Soli J. Sorabjee

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Part I

1. United Nations Constitutional Assistance: A Significant but Uncharted Field
2. The Western Liberal Constitution’s Internationalized Making Sires Foreign Territorial Administration: The Historical Context
3. Internationalizing the Western Liberal Constitution: To Settle Disputes and Civilize
4. The Western Liberal Constitution’s internationalized making: Rise, Rejection, and Revival

Part II

5. The Western Liberal Constitution’s Rise post 1989: United Nations Constitutional Assistance
6. United Nations Constitutional Assistance: An ‘Institution’
7. How Does the UN Justify Offering Constitutional Assistance in This Post-Colonial Era? A ‘Purposive Analysis’
8. United Nations Constitutional Assistance: A Mechanism to Implement International Law and Policy
9. UNCA Continues Its Civilizing Role
10. United Nations Constitutional Assistance: Legitimation in the Post-colonial Era

Select Bibliography

Index

About the Author