Formal constitutional amendment is not merely about addition or change to the original constitution to improve it. This seminar identifies four basic functions of formal constitutional amendment in relation to a constitutional democracy, namely foundational, constructive, progressive, and regressive. Foundational constitutional amendment introduces radical changes to the current constitution to facilitate the immediate creation of a constitutional democracy. Constructive constitutional amendment introduces radical changes to the current constitution to facilitate the incremental creation or transformation of a constitutional democracy. Progressive constitutional amendment introduces changes to the current constitution to facilitate the role of the government in improving the material well-being of the living condition. Finally, regressive constitutional amendment introduces change to the current constitution to facilitate the degeneration of a constitutional democracy. The four functions of constitutional amendment are exemplified by the American experience: the amendment of the Articles of Confederation and the Bill of Rights as foundational amendments; the Reconstruction Amendments as constructive amendments; the 16th, 17th 18th, 19th Amendments as progressive amendments; and the potential risk of regressive amendment.  These functions are further exemplified by the underrepresented comparative experiences in Asia: Japan and South Korea (fundamental amendments); Taiwan and Indonesia (constructive amendments); Singapore and India (progressive amendments); and Cambodia and Thailand (regressive amendments). The four functions of constitutional amendment and the experiences have implications for contextualized functionalism as the epistemology of comparative constitutional amendment inquiry; expanding the concept of constitutional amendment; national identity as the explanation of constitutional design choice between amendment and replacement; and the politics of unconstitutional constitutional amendments.

About the speaker: Prof. Ngoc Son BUI

A light lunch will be served. Live broadcast will be available at Breakout Room 5, The CUHK Graduate Law Centre, 2/F Bank of America Tower, Central