Sussex Cunliffe Centre Conference

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When opponents in deeply divided societies seek to resolve conflict, they sit down to write a constitution. Once thought of as the preserve of lawyers, constitution-making has now become a wider forum for negotiation over power and rights, confrontation with the memory and truth of the past, and safeguards for a modicum of trust between the parties.

"Constitution-making, conflict, and transition in divided societies" was the topic of a Sussex Cunliffe Centre conference hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation at the Bellagio Centre in Italy in February. The event was organised by Professor Vivien Hart of EAM, and co-sponsored by the University of Ulster. Academics and practitioners from Hong Kong, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, Europe, and Sussex participated.

The group agreed that constitution-making entailed much more than writing a document, could be a resource actively used by all sides, and was a hugely ambiguous process which might both help and hinder reconciliation.

Two themes ran through the discussions: awareness of how many attempts at constitution-making were set in an environment of violence, so that the theoretical deficiencies of constitutionalism might pale before the alternatives; and the continuous role of constitutionalism in framing negotiation and action before, during and after the formal settlement. As constitutional crisis developed in Hong Kong during this meeting, it was clear that constitutional law could be the strongest or only defence against authoritarianism.

The final call was for 'sustainable constitutionalism,' a constant concern for the spirit as well as the letter of reconciliation and for the inseparable goals of social and economic as well as formal justice.Workshops for postgraduate students and field-workers will continue this project; details on the Cunliffe Centre website: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/cunliffe/

Resolving conflicts in the aftermath of the Second
World War - a very different process to modern
'constitution making'.