Constitutional Change and Constitutionalism in Africa Get access Arrow

The new generation of African constitutions that were crafted in the 1990s began a trend that promised a new dawn of radical transformation of the continent’s governance landscape, and a concerted attempt to eliminate the risks of coups and political instability that had plagued the continent since decolonization and the granting of independence to countries from 1957 onwards, by embedding democracy and constitutionalism.

However, the post-1990s wave of constitutional reforms appears to have provoked a contagious fever of making, unmaking, and remaking constitutions. The nature of these changes and their frequency threaten to undermine the few strides made to entrench a culture of constitutionalism, good governance, and respect for the rule of law. It is, therefore, no surprise that there is almost universal agreement that Africa is now facing a profound crisis of democracy and constitutionalism. This book interrogates the nature and extent of such changes: changes that have been taking place on a rather more frequent—and sometimes arbitrary—basis than was ever anticipated. Amongst the main questions investigated are the nature of the constitution-making process, as well as the role of diverse internal actors, such as the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, and of external actors, such as the African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs), in the different processes of constitutional change. Ultimately, the discussions strive to see how the processes of constitutional change, whether inevitable and unavoidable or contrived, can be undertaken in a manner that does not undermine or threaten the efforts made to entrench democracy, constitutionalism, good governance, and respect for the rule of law on the African continent.

This book was published by Oxford University Press and can be accessed here.