Writing Constitutions

Writing Constitutions intends to serve as a practical manual for those writing constitutions or interested in their design. It is the first systematic and universal approach to coherently capture concepts and contents of a modern constitution. Volume I breaks each constitutional mechanism into components and offers detailed designs to draft a constitutional clause. This provides lawmakers with the necessary toolkit for writing constitutions and empowers them to strengthen democracies.

 Writing Constitutions comes in three volumes:

-        Volume I:   Institutions

-        Volume II:  Fundamental Rights

-        Volume III: Constitutional Principles

Part I. Parliament: 1 Unicameral or Bicameral Parliaments (Albrecht Weber).- 2 The Deputy (Wolfgang Babeck).- 3 Political Parties and Thresholds (Wolfgang Babeck).- 4 Internal Organisation of Parliament and Role of Opposition (Wolfgang Babeck).- 5 Investigative Committees and Inquisitional Rights (Wolfgang Babeck).- 6 Legislation (Albrecht Weber).- Part II. President: 7 The Presidential Office: Qualification, Election and Term (Wolfgang Babeck).- 8 Presidential Powers and Veto Rights (Babeck/Weber).- 9 Dissolution of Parliament and Impeachment of President (Wolfgang Babeck).- Part III. Government: 10 Government (Babeck/Weber).- Part IV. Judiciary: 11 Constitutional Courts - Supreme Courts (Albrecht Weber).- 12 General and Special Jurisdictions and Public Prosecution (Albrecht Weber).- Part V. Territorial Structure: 13 Territorial Structure (Albrecht Weber).- Part VI. State of Emergency: 14 State of Emergency (Wolfgang Babeck).- Part VII.Defence: 15 Defence (Albrecht Weber).- Part VIII. Budget, Finance and Central Banks: 16 Budget, Finance and Central Banks (Wolfgang Babeck).- Part IX. Referendum: 17 The Referendum (Wolfgang Babeck).- Part X. Amending the Constitution: 18 Amendment Power (Wolfgang Babeck).