Constituent assembly

Members of a constituent assembly may be elected by popular vote, drawn by sortition, appointed, or some combination of these methods.

[6] As described by Columbia University Social Sciences Professor Jon Elster: "Constitutions arise in a number of different ways.

At the democratic extreme, we may imagine a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage for the sole task of writing a new constitution.

[9][10][11] However, despite the controversies and opposition, Sheikh Mujib's uncompromising leadership enabled the Constituent Assembly to draft and enact the Constitution in less than a year.

However, from the time of its drafting until today, the constitution has been often labelled as "fascist"[12] and criticized for fostering autocracy[13] and failing to adequately safeguard human rights.

In the aftermath of 2024 mass uprising, the interim government of Bangladesh is mulling over convening a new constituent assembly to draft a new inclusive democratic constitution, ensuring the inviolability of human dignity.

Immediately after the 1948 Costa Rican Civil War that overthrew the Rafael Angel Calderón Government, the leaders of the victorious side called for the election of a Constituent Assembly in the same year.

The assembly consisted of members of which 114 were directly elected in October 1848, 38 were appointed by the king and the rest were government ministers.

Parlamentarischer Rat (Parliamentary Council) (1948) – Drafted the Basic Law of the Federal Republic for ratification by the Länder.

This council was not recognized as legitimate by Soviet-occupied East Germany, which drafted its own constitution in 1949 and would not accept the Basic Law until German reunification in 1990.

The assembly, in session for four months from early April until late July 2011, drafted a new constitution and passed it unanimously with 25 votes and no abstentions.

Parliament has failed to ratify the bill, however, inviting accusations that the political class is trying to thwart the will of the people by disrespecting the result of the 2012 constitutional referendum.

It was set up as a result of negotiations between the leaders of the Indian independence movement and members of the British Cabinet Mission.

During the opening of Congress, José María Morelos outlined its program in a document called Sentimientos de la Nación (Feelings of the Nation), which was the first antecedent of the various Constitutions of Mexico.

After independence was consummated on September 27, 1821, and based on the Plan de Iguala and the Treaty of Córdoba, the Provisional Governing Junta was stablished.

After the dissolution of Congress, Iturbide created the National Instituent Junta, which enacted the Provisional Political Bylaws of the Mexican Empire on December 18, 1822.

The Congress then created a provisional government, called the Triumvirate, and enacted the Constituent Act of the Mexican Federation, by which the former Provinces of Mexico were transformed into free and sovereign States.

Many disputes aroused between federalists and centralists, which resulted in political instability and in 1836 the Siete Leyes (Seven Laws) were enacted.

On October 16, 1854, President Juan Álvarez, under the Plan de Ayutla, decreed the formation of another Constituent Congress, which met in 1856.

Nepal had two Constituent assemblies, the last one being elected after its predecessor failed to deliver a constitution, despite multiple extensions.

These attempts were made by writing Constitution of 3 May 1791 that was designed to redress long-standing political defects of the Commonwealth and its system of Golden Liberties.

[22] These early state constitutional conventions frequently did not use procedural steps like popular ratification that became commonplace in the mid-19th century.

[23] As American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War by Christian G. Fritz notes:.

"A legitimate constitution depended on whether the sovereign people authorized it, not whether a particular procedure was used or whether revolutionary conventions were free of other responsibilities, such as passing ordinary legislation.

It was the people as the sovereign who authorized drafting those first [state] constitutions that gave them their legitimacy, not whether they used procedures that matched what was later understood to be necessary to create fundamental law.

[34] A few countries do not have an entrenched constitution, which can thus be amended by normal legislative procedures; the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Israel are examples.

Because it is not supreme law, the constitution is comparatively easy to reform, requiring only a majority of Members of Parliament to amend it.