Making and unmaking constitutions: National obsession and ad hominem compulsions

by Rajan Philips-October 29, 2017

The unfolding constitutional crisis in Spain is bad timing for constitutional reform in Sri Lanka. The opponents of reform, who are also defenders of the current (1978) Sri Lankan constitution, will soon seize on the Spanish government’s clamp down on Catalan’s claim to independence - to insist on a full stop to the constitutional reform project in Sri Lanka. The constitutional reformers, on the other hand, could justifiably argue that their draft proposals will have even stronger safeguards against separatist threats than does Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, or even anything in our present constitution. But that will go nowhere in the storm of constitutional politics where it is far easier to whip up fears and that much harder to calm them down.

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