A news story today indicates that some Iraqis are suggesting that it will take up to a year to negotiate a new constitution, whereas the Administration seems to suggest that six months will be enough. For all of our ostensible expertise on constitutional issues, do we, as American constitutional lawyers (who probably, as an empirical matter, have not engaged in the close study of any non-American constitutional system), have anything relevant to say about the optimal amount of time a remarkably divided, dysfunctional society like Iraq should be expected to take to draft a new constitution? And, of course, the more volatile question is whether we, as American constitutional lawyers, have anything relevant to say about what the new constitution should say. Riding several of my own hobbyhorses, I'd be interested in knowing how many people on the list would advise (or even insist that) the Iraqis adopt the following features of our constitution:
1) Article V 2) life tenure for judges (who will be presumed to have the power of judicial review) 3) the electoral college 4) bicameralism plus a presidential veto 5) a right to bear arms 6) capital punishment as a constitutionally legitimate punishment (see Amendments V, XIV) 7) the prohibition of an established religion 8) toleration of seditious and/or religious/ethnic "hate speech"
sandy
