Over the past few decades, peace agreements have come to be a defining feature of political and legal settlements of internal conflict. The relationship between peace processes and constitution-making is complex and some scholars have suggested that it requires a new understanding of constitutionalism. Peace agreements have often been accompanied or followed by significant constitutional amendment, or even wholesale constitutional reform. In divided societies, peace processes may also include negotiations and discussion around strengthening or introducing some form of federalism or decentralization of power. With the global advent of constitutional courts, this has brought courts into the conversation of validating, interpreting and applying peace agreements or constitutional reforms that have followed from these processes. This phenomenon raises a whole host of issues for the field comparative constitutional law. This workshop was convened to bring together leading scholars of Myanmar including Professor Maung Aung Myoe, International Relations Program, International University of Japan; Professor Khin Khin Oo, Mandalay University, and Ms Kyi Pyar Chit Saw. It also included comparative constitutional law scholars including Professor Arun Thirvengadam; Dr Moeen Cheema; Professor Theunis Roux; Professor John Braithwaite; Professor Jeremy Webber; Professor Mark Tushnet; and Professor David Landau. The proceedings from this conference are published in a Special Issue on Peace Processes and Constitution-making of the International Journal of Constitutional Law.
Melissa Crouch, Peace-processes and Constitution-making: An Introduction
Asli Ozcelik and Tarik Olcay, (Un)constitutional change rooted in peace agreements
Mark Tushnet and Beatriz Botero Arcila, Conceptualizing the role of courts in peace processes
David Landau, The causes and consequences of a judicialized peace process in Colombia
Jeremy Webber, Federalism’s radical potential
Moeen Cheema and Farooq Yousaf, Constitutionalizing a perpetual transition: The “integration” of the Pashtun “tribal areas” in Pakistan
Melissa Crouch, Constitutional Touchstones: Federalism, Peace Processes and Constitution-making in Myanmar
