Description
Oxford University Press Constitution-Making Under Un Auspices Fostering Dependency In Sovereign Lands by Vijayashri Sripati
In 1949, United Nations Constitutional Assistance (UNCA) was conceived to promote the Western liberal constitution. This was colonial trusteeship. However, in 1960, as a step towards decolonization, the United Nations General Assembly rejected internationalized constitution-making, and, by extension, UNCA. All colonies acquired the right to draft their own constitutions without any international assistance. Nonetheless, in the same year, UNCA was revived and since then it has helped over 40 developing sovereign states to adopt the Western liberal constitution, for the aims of building peace, preventing conflict, and promoting good governance in these independent states.
This book scrutinizes UNCA and its off-shoot, UN/International Territorial Administration (ITA), including their historical origins and revival from 1960 to 2019. Sripati argues that although the United Nations (UN) uses UNCA to help developing sovereign states secure debt relief, it undertakes UNCA to ‘modernize’ them with a view to ‘strengthen’ their supposedly weakened sovereignty. By doing so, the UN is seeking these states’ adoption of a Western liberal-style constitution, thus violating their right to self-determination. The book shows how UNCA sires and guides UN (legislative) assistance in all state-sectors: security, judicial, electoral, commercial, parliamentary, public administration, and criminal. Irrespective of UNCA’s benevolent motivations, such intrusive interventions impose the old forms of domination and perpetuate global inequality.
Table of contents:
List of Tables and Figures
Foreword by Soli J. Sorabjee
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Part I
United Nations Constitutional Assistance: A Significant but Uncharted Field
The Western Liberal Constitution’s Internationalized Making Sires Foreign Territorial Administration: The Historical Context
Internationalizing the Western Liberal Constitution: To Settle Disputes and Civilize
The Western Liberal Constitution’s internationalized making: Rise, Rejection, and Revival
Part II
The Western Liberal Constitution’s Rise post 1989: United Nations Constitutional Assistance
United Nations Constitutional Assistance: An ‘Institution’
How Does the UN Justify Offering Constitutional Assistance in This Post-Colonial Era? A ‘Purposive Analysis’
United Nations Constitutional Assistance: A Mechanism to Implement International Law and Policy
UNCA Continues Its Civilizing Role
United Nations Constitutional Assistance: Legitimation in the Post-colonial Era
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author:
Vijayashri Sripati is a visiting scholar at The University of Toledo, Ohio (2019–20). An expert on United Nations Constitutional Assistance (UNCA), she writes on topics at the intersection of constitutional law and human rights.