The Constitution of Massachusetts of 1780, the first in history to be directly ratified by the people, establishes in its preamble that "the body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people". Hence, a Constitution requieres mechanisms to allow the active participation of the citizenship in order to reflect the will of the people.
Each year, 4 or 5 national constitutions in the world are replaced, around 15 are amended. The design of the processes of constitutional change has important consequences in the resulting constitutional text and in the future political system due to the relation that the processes of establishment of a Constitution have in the promotion, consolidation and improvement of democratic systems. Today, an important change in the way that Constitutions are changed is taking place: participation, transparency and inclusiveness in the constitution-making process have important consequences leading to different constitutional and democratic systems.
In this seminar, through multiple examples, we will discuss about the pros and cons of these new ways of constitution-making and the constitutional change possibilities in the the United States and Spain.
Speakers: José Manuel Martínez Sierra, RCC Director, Jean Monnet ad Personam Professor in EU Law and Government, Co-chair, European Union Law and Government Study Group and Co-chair, Southern Europe Study Group, Center for European Studies at Harvard University; Diego González Cadenas, RCC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School.
Sponsor: RCC
LOCATION:RCC Conference Room, 26 Trowbridge St., Cambridge MA STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20180213T170000Z DTEND:20180213T180000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR