The Constitution-Making Handbook

The Handbook was written by four specialists in constitution-making, one of whom was Prof Yash Ghai who will head the Fiji Consititution Commission. Here is the link to download.   Between them, they have assisted constitution-making in 13 countries—Afghanistan, Cambodia, Fiji, Iraq, Kenya, Maldives, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka,Timor-Leste and Uganda. This is a profile of the authors. Readers should find the handbook as useful reference as work on the Fiji constitution proceeds.

Michele Brandt

Michele Brandqt is a constitutional lawyer. She launched and directs Interpeace’s Constitution- making for Peace program, which develops tools and resources to improve constitution-making practice and provides technical assistance to both international organizations and national actors. In this capacity she has also organized several international workshops on key constitution- making issues. Michele has spent over a dozen years directly assisting processes in the field. She was the full-time constitutional advisor to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the Afghan Constitutional Commission. In Timor-Leste, Michele served with the United Nations Transitional Administration as a judicial affairs officer and was a member of the Transitional Judicial Service Commission as well as the Cabinet Legislative Committee and later directed the Asia Foundation’s Constitutional Development program. In Cambodia, Michele cofounded the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center and directed an eleven-office legal aid association. She has published numerous articles on human rights, capacity development, gender, peacebuilding, and the rule of law, including a study of the United Nations’ constitutional assistance efforts.

Jill Cottrell

Jill Cottrell retired in 2006 after teaching law for 40 years at universities in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. She was educated at the University of London and Yale Law School. She has been a consultant on constitution-making for Timor-Leste, Maldives, Iraq, and Somalia. From 2006 to 2008, Jill was a consultant with the Constitution Advisory Support Unit (CASU), UNDP, Kathmandu, Nepal. She has also been involved with International IDEA on a project for women members of the Constituent Assembly.

Yash Ghai

Yash Ghai studied at Oxford and Harvard. He held positions at a number of universities, including the Universities of Dar es Salaam, Warwick, Uppsala, and Hong Kong, and visiting appointments at Harvard, Yale, the Universities of the South Pacific, Wisconsin, Toronto, and Melbourne, and the National University of Singapore. He retired from university teaching in 2006. He has published extensively on constitution-making, public law, sociology of law, ethnic relations, comparative law, and law and development. Yash has over 35 years of experience advising countries on constitutional matters, including the making or reviews of constitutions. He was the chair of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission and of the Kenya National Constitutional Conference (2000–2004). More recently, he headed the Constitution Advisory Unit of UNDP, Nepal (2006–2008), which advised on the constitution-making process in Nepal.

He has been working as a consultant for UNDP on the constitution for Somalia, of which the draft is currently (2011) the subject of public consultation.

Anthony Regan

Anthony Regan is a constitutional lawyer who has worked since 1997 for the Australian National University (Canberra) as a fellow in the State, Society, and Governance in Melanesia Program, College of Asia and the Pacific. He studies the law and politics of constitutions, and the design of the state as part of postconflict political settlements and peacebuilding efforts. Anthony has undertaken advisory work in a number of countries, particularly Papua New Guinea, where he has lived and worked full-time for 15 years (including more than two years in Bougainville from 2002 to 2004, assisting in the development of a post-conflict sub-national constitution) and Uganda (where he worked for over three years from 1991 to 1994 assisting the Uganda Constitutional Commission and the Uganda Constituent Assembly in developing a new constitution). Anthony has also been involved in advising on constitution-making or conflict-resolution work in Timor-Leste, the Solomon Islands, India (especially Nagaland), Sri Lanka, and Fiji. He assisted in developing Interpeace’s Constitution-making for Peace program. Anthony has written extensively on peacebuilding and constitution-making. His most recent book is Light Intervention: Lessons from Bougainville, published by the United States Institute of Peace late in 2010.

© Interpeace 2011