8th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture
Module 4: Constitutional design in divided societies
The
course explores the relevance of constitutional design to the
challenges of governance in divided societies. It seeks to expose
students to the different combinations of constitutional choices that
are available to multi-ethnic states in their endeavor to regulate and
manage divided societies. In short, it discusses what can be done in
terms of constitutional design to address the communal tension that
characterises many of these countries around the world.
The course entails an examination
of:
- The challenges of divided societies;
- Bill of rights: The liberal response to the challenges of divided societies;
- Consociationalism;
- Federalism in divided societies;
- Territorial pluralism;
- Powers and functions;
- Electoral systems;
- Representation;
- The courts;
- Language policy in divided societies;
- Intra-substate minorities and dispersed communities;
- Secession and partition as an institutional solution to divided societies;
- The internationalisation of constitutional design for divided societies