Essay about Transatlantic Constitutions Comparing the US...

At the Laeken European Council of December 2001, government and state leaders of the European Union (EU) Member States decided to draft a `Constitutional Treaty for the EU. The draft would then be discussed, amended, approved or rejected by an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) held in 2003. The aim of Fabbrinis article is thus to contribute to the understanding of the constitutional evolution of the EU through a comparison with the constitutional experience of the United States. Worth noting is the fact that there originally were two American constitutions, that the EU does not yet have a formal constitution; but also that the similarities between the constitutionalization process of the two powers are so similar that they warrant a†¦show more content†¦Also introduced in the Preamble to the American constitution was the idea of a republican government, which basically means that the document would first and foremost represent a covenant among the people, a step that generally is seen as necessary to the good implementation of a constitution: Thus a constitution involves implementing a prior covenant-effectuating or translating a prior covenant into an actual frame of government. (Fabbrini, 2004, p.549) This means that the power has to be derived from the people: in short, the constitution IS the people and stems from their wishes and desires. That is why, for example, Governors have to operate within the institutional constraints defined by citizen s through their constitution. (Fabbrini, 2004, p.549) Going back to the American Way of doing things, the constitution is a written document that is separate from other legal texts since: ol li value=1 It surpasses ALL other legal texts li value=2 It considers matters that are more fundamental then others li value=3 It is very hard to modify (only under stringent amendment procedures) /ol Although the American democratic model is popular, many countries (like New Zealand, France, Hungary, Israel) have adapted it to suit their specific needs. A common thread among all these constitutions is that every one of them serves to regulate fundamental matters, although not only such matters nor allShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pageslike African slavery, grew increasingly common over the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries along with the growth in global commerce.12 Long-distance migration after the middle of the nineteenth century, by contrast, was mostly free. The transatlantic African slave trade, which had been banned by the British Empire in 1807 with limited success (a third of all slaves taken to the New World arrived after the ban) had come to a virtual end by the 1850s.13 The westward-bound movement of European