Writing Constitutions

Wolfgang Babeck is an honorary adjunct professor at Bond University, Australia and a commercial lawyer admitted in New South Wales, England and Wales and Germany. Over the past 25 years Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Babeck  has been involved in legal and constitutional reforms in Lithuania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam. Both in 2010 and in 2017 he chaired a constitutional conference for the country of Georgia. He lives in Sydney and occasionally in Berlin.

Albrecht Weber is a renowned scholar in the field of comparative constitutional law, European law and Fundamental Rights. Em. Prof. Dr. Albrecht Weber has taught in Osnabrück, Germany; France; Spain; Italy and Canada. He has published widely in the area, e.g. Europäische Verfassungsvergleichung (2010); European Constitutions Compared (2019); Fundamental Rights in Europe and North America (ed. 2000-2007); Menschenrechte. Texte und Fallpraxis (2004). He lives in Osnabrück.

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).