Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions

Reviews / Votes

This collection is highly impressive in both its breadth and depth. Local knowledge and theoretical sophistication combine to make this essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in constitutions, federalism, territorial cleavages, and peace. The synthetic conclusion shows just how far we can advance knowledge through collaboration across national and disciplinary boundaries. We need more studies like this. * Nancy Bermeo, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University and Nuffield Professor of Comparative Politics Emeritus, University of Oxford * Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions provides path-breaking analysis of conflicts rooted in territorial identity along with building blocks for academic theorists and wise counsel to practitioners. Drawing on a vast range of cases, the volume provides useful generalizations regarding how territorial interests are mobilized by geography, political history, and power, and how constitutional processes and design can sometimes succeed despite intense mobilization of territorial interests. It provides both hope and essential reading for anyone seeking peaceful, stable, and fair outcomes in territorially divided societies. * Roderick M. Hills Jr., William T. Comfort III Professor of Law, New York University School of Law * In its wide-ranging exploration of how constitutions help promote peace, stability and inclusion in deeply divided societies, this volume combines rich theoretical analysis with in-depth constitutional case-studies. Contributions from leading constitutional scholars and practitioners give it an impressive scope, with seventeen country cases studies. The insights it generates are both fresh and compelling. It deserves the widest possible audience. * Rosalind Dixon, Professor of Law, University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law; co-President, International Society of Public Law * While comparative constitutionalism is the stock in trade of conflict resolution practitioners, too often this is not accompanied by an understanding of the underlying logic and political dynamics that inform or limit constitutional options. It is here that Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions makes an outstanding and invaluable contribution to our understanding of the logic of possible options for constitutional processes and design, especially in a context of territorial cleavages. * Nicholas Haysom, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General, Somalia * This compendium offers a unique perspective on a dizzying range of political and violent conflicts in societies rent by territorial cleavages. It leaves us with optimism about how constitutional processes may make such conflicts tractable. While each chapter captures the inescapable logic of institutional and political context, the editors painstakingly, and with great nuance, elaborate a general framework for understanding how divided societies might achieve reconstitution and even coexistence and integration. Territory and Power in Constitutional Transitions epitomizes what scholarship on comparative constitutional development should strive to achieve. * Cristina M. Rodriguez, Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law, Yale Law School * This remarkable contribution to the understanding of contemporary Libya doubles as a primer on violent conflict and its societal ramifications, and invites reexamination of other cases of mass civil violence. Recommended for larger college libraries and collections supporting international and conflict studies. * Choice *