a semi-annual publication of the iu maurer school of law center for constitutional democracy

spring 2013

democracy in action

Greetings from the Center

The CCD team has been working diligently across the globe to further the Center’s mission: To support work of foreign reformers to bring constitutionalism and the rule of law to new and struggling democracies by providing legal analysis, training, scholarship, and consultation.

In this issue, you will read about our latest efforts. You will also meet our new PhD fellows and learn about the scholarship of the CCD’s leadership. We welcome your comments. Please contact us at ccd@indiana.edu, and visit our website: ccd.indiana.edu.David C. Williams, Executive DirectorSusan H. Williams, Director

The Center’s activity in South Sudan is primarily threefold: + Advise the drafting process for the 2011 Transitional Constitution; + Support the drafting process for the Permanent Constitution; and + Empower women’s organizations to participate in the constitutional process.

In summer 2011 Center personnel traveled to South Sudan to advise the legislative committee overseeing the drafting process for the Transitional Constitution. After meeting with various stakeholders (e.g., government officials and political party leaders, among others) the Center drafted a memorandum that provided comments on the Transitional Constitution, addressing issues related to the concentration of executive power.

The process for writing the Permanent Constitution formally began in January 2012. Since then the Center has been asked by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in South Sudan to write a white paper on various constitutional aspects of governance in order to inform the drafting process for the Permanent Constitution. Center personnel returned to South Sudan in fall 2012 to begin the information gathering process for the white paper. The Center has also been invited to meet with women’s organizations in South Sudan to help them advocate effectively for constitutional provisions to promote gender equity.

South Sudan: advise, support, empower

Jubliant citizens celebrate South Sudan Independence Day in Juba.

Burma: Turning the corner Professors David and Susan Williams visited Burma in November and December 2012 to meet with the heads of the ethnic resistance armies and advise them on the constitutional issues that the armies might confront as they negotiate the terms for cease-fires. The armies are currently negotiating cease-fires with the Burmese government, which are the first step toward political talks that will ultimately lead to constitutional reform. For the first time, the Burmese government is open to the ideals of federalism and reform, and therefore the window of opportunity for the resistance to make concrete and specific demands for long-term change is now.

Also during the November and December 2012 meetings, Susan led a seminar for an umbrella women’s group on gender equity; David and Susan both led seminars for leaders of civil society organizations to advise on constitutional reform; Susan led a class at the Myanmar Institute of Theology on democracy and constitutionalism; David met with leaders of the ethnic opposition political parties in the parliament; and David briefed the US ambassador, US political officers, and USAID officers on the constitutional issues arising in negotiations between the resistance armies and the government.

The Center’s Burma work in the coming months will consist of advising the ethnic resistance armies, most importantly the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), on the constitutional aspects of their demands.

David and Susan Williams with the participants in the CSO forum held in Mawlamyaing, Burma.

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Center Executive Director David Williams and U Tin Oo, Deputy Leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma. (Please turn to page 4 for more photos from Burma.)

Liberia: Constitution-drafting under way Professors David and Susan Williams are currently working with Dr. Jallah Barbu, Chairman of the Law Reform Commission of Liberia (LRC), to set up constitutional conferences and organize Liberia’s amendment drafting process. In spring 2013, Center personnel will conduct regional public consultations in Liberia and help form new language for the Liberian Constitution.

In January, the Williams family traveled to Liberia with CCD Affiliates Aaron Bonar and Nikki Tuttle. They spent a week meeting with the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) and many other government officials, and participating in a gender forum and a symposium on the constitutional amendment process. Over the next several months, the CCD will work with the CRC and the LRC to develop a protocol for the public consultation meetings, to analyze the data collected from these meetings, and to draft proposed amendments responsive to the public’s concerns. Professors David and Susan Williams will return to Liberia in May to work with the CRC on the final version of the proposed amendments.

The Williams family (including Ben and Sarah) and Ph.D. student Aaron Bonar meet with the family of Dr. Jallah Barbu, the Chairman of the Law Reform Commission in Liberia.

Vietnam: Advice on the rule of law Center personnel have published several articles in Vietnamese magazines based on research on general theory of democracy and rule of law, judicial independence, and the 1946 constitution. The articles have received positive feedback from inside the country and contributed ideas to the constitutional debate in Vietnam.

The Center continues to advise the Democratic Party of Vietnam in formulating comments and proposals in the ongoing constitutional amendment process in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has just released the constitutional amendment draft on January 2, 2013, and the public has three months to comment on it.

Center personnel have also worked on a small project pertaining to the land-grabbing situation in Cambodia. This spring they will generate a memo comparing the land-grabbing issue in Vietnam and Cambodia. The memo examines whether the private property ownership right and the nascent democratic structure in Cambodia made a difference in protecting people’s land rights. It will also explore how farmers who lose their land mobilize to defend their interests.

Profs. David and Susan Williams with Dr. Jallah Barbu.

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Libya: Two projects build a foundation

Professor Susan Williams went to Tunisia in September 2012 for two projects. The first project was in collaboration with Lawyers for Justice in Libya (LFJL), a UK-based NGO made up of Libyan lawyers, judges, and law professors living in the Diaspora. LFJL’s project is called Destoori, which in Arabic means “my constitution.” The goal of Destoori is to educate the Libyan public on the constitution and thereby foster a sense of national involvement in constitution-building and legal reform. Professor Williams trained four facilitators, two men and two women, who then embarked on a bus trip in November to travel around Libya and educate the public. The second project was sponsored by the British Council, a government-related agency that promotes goodwill and cultural connection between the UK and other countries. The British Council hosted a program to promote gender equality in Libya, and invited Professor Williams to be the facilitator for the program. Libyan lawyers, activists, law professors, and members of the new Libyan Congress attended the program in order to work through the ways in which gender equality could be incorporated into the new Libyan constitution. At the end of the workshop, the participants drafted some model provisions to be offered to the constitutional drafting commission, once it is formed. Currently, the Libyan government is working to appoint a cabinet and develop legislation to organize the election of a Constitutional Drafting Commission. When those projects are complete, our hope is appoint a cabinet and a Constitution Drafting Commission. When those appointments have been made, our hope is to continue to be involved in the constitution-drafting process.

More scenes from Burma (clockwise from above): A festival at a Buddhist pagoda in Mawlamyaing; Susan Williams leads a seminar in Mawlamyaing; David and Susan Williams with Reverend Matthew and the Catholic Bishop of Mawlamyaing, who hosted the conference.

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Three graduate students have joined the Center as Ph.D. fellows.

Kwangsup Kim, PhD FellowKwangsup Kim studies constitutional design with a mission to protect human rights and balance the powers for pro-democracy. After retiring from the Navy in 2000, Kwangsup worked as a Senior Counselor for the Korean National Assembly. In January 2011, he won the Grand Prize from the Speaker of the National Assembly. Kwangsup has worked in the FKCC (Future Korea Constitution Committee) preparing constitutional law of unification, and in the UN-MDG FORUM, a group which advocates food security and works to eradicate poverty. Over time Kwangsup has also gained political campaign experience, most notably during the Korean presidential election of 2007 where he participated in making a presidential election pledge as a member of policy room. Since 2007 Kwangsup has been an academic director and vice chairperson of the Committee of Women’s Rights at the Human Rights and Welfare Institution of Korea. He also became a member of the Board of Directors at The Correction Welfare Society of Korea in 2012.

Yiqiao Wang, PhD FellowYiqiao Wang is a doctoral student in Law and Democracy. He received a Bachelor of Law Degree from East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, China. After graduation, he worked in a law office for one year before pursuing a Master of Law degree from IU Maurer School of Law, which he was awarded in December 2010. His current research focuses on the democratization of China, including constitutional design, judicial reform, and the issues related to the ethnic minorities.

Aaron Bonar, JD/PhD FellowAaron Bonar earned his B.A., with distinction, in Political Science (International Relations and Security Studies) and German at Wabash College. He also received a minor in Russian. Drawn to the Indiana University Maurer School of Law by the Center for Constitutional Democracy, Aaron spent the summer of 2011 working on constitutional reform issues with the Law Reform Commission of Liberia in Monrovia. Working as a J.D. Affiliate during the 2011/2012 school year, Aaron researched Liberia’s constitutional revision process and ways to improve Moldova’s constitutional court. Now a Ph.D. student, Aaron hopes to focus his research on the rise of authoritarianism in Liberia and Central Asia.

Graduate fellows join Center for Constitutional Democracy

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Center leadership’s recent workSusan WilliamsArticles and Book Chapters:+ A Feminist View of Mercy, Judgment, and the “Exception” in the Context of Transitional Justice, in Merciful Judgment (Austin Sarat, ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 2012)+ Democratic Theory, Feminist Theory, and Constitutionalism: The Challenge of Multiculturalism in Feminist Constitutionalism (Beverly Baines, Daphne Barak-Erez., and Tsvi Kahane, eds.) (Cambridge University Press 2012) Constitutional Advising Work+ Meetings with Burmese ethnic resistance groups in Rangoon and Mawlamyaing, Myanmar, and in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to advise them on constitutional negotiations with the government of Myanmar (November 2012)+ Workshop presenter, Workshop on Women in the New Libyan Constitution, British Council program, Tunis, Tunisia (September 12-14, 2012)+ Collaboration with Lawyers for Justice in Libya on Destoori, a project to educate the Libyan public on the constitution and encourage national involvement in constitution-building and legal reform (September 2012)+ Constitutional conferences with Dr. Jallah Barbu, Chairman of the Law Reform Commission of Liberia (January 2013)

Invited Public Lectures+ C. Edwin Baker Memorial Lecture, West Virginia University College of Law (November 9, 2012)

Academic Conferences and Seminars+ Panelist, Customary Law, Constitutional Law, and Women’s Equality, presented at the Conference on En/Gendering Governance: From the Local to the Global, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (August 6-8, 2012)

David WilliamsArticles and Book Chapters+ Asymmetrical Federalism in Burma, forthcoming chapter in Cambridge University Press book on constitutionalism and difference in Asia.+ Sometimes Guns Are the Answer: The Path to Autonomy in Tibet, Burma, and South Sudan, forthcoming chapter in Routledge book on Tibetan autonomy in comparative perspective.+ Revolutions and Institutions: Political Violence and Sri Lanka’s 1972 Constitution, forthcoming chapter in book commemorating Sri Lanka’s 1972 constitution, to be published by the Center for Policy Alternatives.

Constitutional Advising Work+ Meetings with Burmese ethnic resistance groups in Rangoon and Mawlamyaing, Myanmar, and in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to advise them on constitutional negotiations with the government of Myanmar (November 2012)+ Constitutional conferences with Dr. Jallah Barbu, Chairman of the Law Reform Commission of Liberia (January 2012)

Nadejda MazurAcademic Conferences and Seminars+ A Causal Analysis of Human Rights Violations Based upon Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, 1959-2010(with Austin Mitchell), presented at 70th Annual Midwest Political Science Association, 2012, Chicago

Huong NguyenArticles and Book Chapters+ Pursuing Constitutional Dialogue within Socialist Vietnam: The 2010 Debate (October 10, 2012). AustrAliAn JournAl of AsiAn lAw, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2012. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2159552+ Internet Stirs Activism in Vietnam, Yale Global Online, May 11, 2012, available at http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/internet-stirs- activism-vietnam.

Conference + 6th Center for International and Public Law Workshop: Connecting International and Public Law En/gendering Governance: From the Local to the Global (August 6-8th, 2012, Australian National University College of Law, Canberra, Australia). Paper presented: Equality Without Freedoms? Political Representation and Participation of Women in Vietnam

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Recent speakers at the Center for Constitutional Democracy

February 2, 2012Eden Medina, IUB InformaticsFinding Commonalities in Science, Technology, and Politics: Lessons from Chile on the Design of Computer Systems for Political Change

February 9, 2012Ethan Michelson, IUB SociologyJudicial Performance without Independence in Rural China

February 16, 2012Jennifer Nedelsky, University of Toronto, Political ScienceReconceiving Rights and Constitutionalism in Relational Terms

April 5, 2012Nazif Shaharani, IUB Near Eastern Languages and CultureBuilding a Modern Nation-State with Tribal Political Culture: A Century of Failures in Afghanistan

April 19, 2012Stephen Gardbaum, Law, UCLAThe New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism

October 4, 2012William Weeks, IUB LawThe Environment in Constitutions, an Introduction

October 26, 2012Lee Waldorf, UN WomenWomen’s Human Rights Deficits in Legal Frameworks: A Global Perspective on the Rule of Law

November 1, 2012Abdulaziz Al Hussan, Osool Law Firm, Saudi ArabiaConstitutional Questions and Reform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

November 2, 2012Jallah Barbu, Law Reform Commission, LiberiaRemaking the Liberian Constitution: Popular Resolve in the Face of Imminent Shortfalls

November 9, 2012Matt Rojansky, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceThe Transnistria Conflict: Not Frozen

Democracy in Action is published semi-annually by the Center for Constitutional Democracy at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. For more information, visit ccd.indiana.edu. © 2013 The Trustees of Indiana University.