Month: April 2012
-
Tunisia’s Draft Preamble
Zaid Al-Ali of International IDEA has provided a translation of the Draft Preamble of the new Tunisian Constitution. What is noteworthy to me is the predictability of the text. There are very few surprises, perhaps the biggest surprise is the continuity with older tropes in Arab politics.
-
Brown on Egypt: Anton Chekhov at the OK Corral
[Note: the following appeared today at ForeignPolicy.com under the title “Egypt’s transition imbroglio”. Thanks to FP and to Nathan Brown for letting us re-post] The phrase “Egyptian transition process” has become tragicomically oxymoronic in light of the dizzying series of developments over the past month.
-
Egypt suspends constitutional assembly
Egypt’s muddled constitution-making process continues to befuddle. Yesterday the Supreme Administrative Court suspended the constituent assembly as unrepresentative and in violation of Article 60 of the constitutional declaration passed in 2011. The decision, which carried no explanation, is a bit puzzling as Article 60 does not provide any criteria for membership of the 100-member assembly.
-
Arab Spring Constitutionalism
A piece I wrote on Constitutional reform in the Arab World was recently published by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs as expert commentary. Special thanks to Tom Ginsburg who helped me a great deal with his knowledge of the region.
-
Egypt on the agenda
There has been a lot of attention to Egypt this past month, as the constitution-making process continues to move along; our occasional contributor Tamir Moustafa has an excellent and thorough analysis for the Brookings Center available here. Yesterday’s report that the Muslim Brotherhood has decided to run a presidential candidate marks an important turning point for the likely outcome in Egypt.