Founding moments are landmark events that break ties with the ancien régime and lay the foundation for the establishment of a new constitutional order. They are often radically disruptive episodes in the life of a state. They reshape national law, reset political relationships, establish future power structures, and influence happenings in neighbouring countries.
This edited collection brings together leading and emerging scholars to theorise the phenomenon of a founding moment. What is a founding moment? When does the ‘founding’ process begin and when does it end? Is a founding moment possible without yielding a new constitution? Can a founding moment lead to a partial or incomplete transformation? And should the state be guided by the intentions of those who orchestrated these momentous breaks from the past? Drawing from constitutions around the world, the authors ask these and other fundamental questions about making and remaking constitutions.
Introduction: Mapping the Founding
Richard Albert and Menaka Guruswamy
1. Between Fact and Norm: Narrative and the Constitutionalisation of Founding Moments
Ming-Sung Kuo
2. Th e Role of Courts in Advancing Constitutional Moments: Constitutionalising the Constitution in Singapore and Hong Kong
Swati Jhaveri
3. Foundation and Revolution: Hannah Arendt and the Problem of Legitimacy and Stability in Constitutional Consolidation
Mel A Topf
4. I am Not Your (Founding) Father
Mikolaj Barczentewicz
5. ‘And Then They Begin to Look after the History of Their Founders’: (Re)configurations of the Founding in the Early Republic
Simon Gilhooley
6. Under the Shadow of the Constitutional Revolution? Revisiting Israel’s Founding Moments
Yair Sagy
7. Path-Dependency in Soviet and Russian Constitution-Making
Eugene D Mazo
8. ‘Founding Moments’ in Latin America? Th e Brazilian and Chilean Constitutional Histories and the Rise of the Forgotten People
Juliano Zaiden Benvindo
9. We the Taiwanese People: A Constitution with Two Antagonistic Constitutional Identities
Chien-Chih Lin
10. What’s in a Founding? Founding Moments and Pakistan’s ‘Permanent Constitution’ of 1973
Maryam S Khan
11. A Founding Moment in Iraq: A Gender Perspective
Noga Efrati
Conclusion: Rethinking Founding Moments
Nishchal Basnyat
Richard Albert is the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law and Professor of Government at The University of Texas at Austin.
Menaka Guruswamy is a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India and was the BR Ambedkar Research Scholar and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School
Nishchal Basnyat is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. He was also the Lt Charles Fiske III Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge University.
