LL4GA      Half Unit
Constitutionalisms in the Global South

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

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This course will study the practice of constitutionalisms in the Global South. ‘Constitutionalism’ will be understood in a thin sense, to include political precommitments to a wide variety of values (potentially including democracy, liberalism, theocracy, and socialism) through a diverse range of constitutional actors (including courts, political parties, guarantor or ‘fourth branch’ institutions, the military and so on). 

One of the key objectives of the course is to decentre Euro-American practice in comparative constitutional discourse. To do so, it will examine the recent attempts to theorise Southern constitutionalisms—including, whether there is anything distinctively ‘Southern’ about the practice of constitutionalism in such a large and diverse part of the world. Illustrations of comparative constitutional practice will be drawn from a wide canvas of Southern jurisdictions— sometimes juxtaposed against a Northern example—with a focus on constitutional innovations that have been especially prominent in Southern jurisdictions. The particular experience of the Global South with colonialism and its implications for constitutionalism will also be studied. The role of constitutionalism and constitution-making in deeply divided societies will also be a key focus of this course.

2 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.
20 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the AT.

• Adem Abebe, ‘Tackling Winner-Takes-All Politics in Africa: Inclusive Governance through Constitutional Empowerment of Opposition Parties’ in T Ginsburg et al eds, The Constitutional Design of Elections and Parties (2024)
• Sergio Verdugo & Marcela Prieto, The dual aversion of Chile’s constitution-making process’ 19(1) International Journal of Constitutional Law (2021) 149
• Ngoc Son Bui, Constitutional Change in the Contemporary Socialist Word (OUP 2020) (Chapter 7: The Exceptional Model: China)
• Mirjam Künkler & David S Law, ‘Islamic Constitutionalism: Iran’ in David Law, Constitutionalism in Context (2022)

• Gabrielle Appleby & Eddie Synot, ‘A First Nations Voice: Institutionalising Political Listening’ (2020) Federal Law Review 529
• Amal Sethi, ‘Looking beyond the constituent power theory: The theory of equitable elite bargaining’ Global Constitutionalism (2024)
• Yonathan Fessha & Nora Ho Tu Nam, ‘Is it time to let go? The Best Loser System in Mauritius’ 28 Africa Focus (2015) 63
• N Sultany, 'Against Conceptualism: Islamic Law, Democracy, and Constitutionalism in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring.' Boston University International Law Journal (2013) 435
• Sunni Ittehad Council v Pakistan Election Commission (Pakistan Supreme Court, Civil Appeal No. 333 of 2024)
• South Africa Certification judgment [1996] ZACC 26
• Attorney General v David Ndii, Petition no 12 of 2021, Kenyan Supreme Court [2022]
• Re Constitution Amendment Bill (Ruling 4/2564, Thailand 2021)

Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period