There are two new papers up on SSRN concerning the contribution of outsiders to the formation and interpretation of national constitutions. As recently previewed here, Rosalind Dixon and Vicki Jackson have a forthcoming paper in Wake Forest Law Review called Constitutions Inside Out: Outsider Interventions In Domestic Constitutional Contests. See Mark Tushnet’s review of the article here.
Kevin Cope has just posted a study, forthcoming in the Virginia Journal of International Law, of constitution-making in South Sudan entitled, The Intermestic Constitution: Lessons from the World’s Newest Nation. Cope characterizes the exercise as one of “intermestic” constitution-making, in which both international and domestic forces are intertwined. He emphasizes greater outsider roles in the area of constitutional rights than in structural provisions. Noting the dangers, he warns that “indigenous structures designed to bolster power of drafters and would-be leaders may concentrate power in the executive, subvert an independent judiciary, and/or otherwise diminish checks and balances, thereby undercutting the constitution’s robust, internationally-approved progressive bills of rights.”