tdaxp

"How Many Methods Are There to Enact a New Constitution in Iraq?," by Andrew Arato, Informed Consent, http://www.juancole.com/2005/02/how-many-methods-are-there-to-enact.html, 21 February 2005.

I have been blogging both here (and here and here), and on John Tabin's site, that no ratification is needed for the new Iraqi constitution. Today, Juan Cole runs an editorial on the same theme

In the meantime however it could be also amended, in part or as a whole. Its amendment rule requires ¾ of the votes of the National Assembly, plus the agreement of all three members of the Presidency Council (who were picked by 2/3 of the assembly). (Art. 3A) A UIA led coalition with the Kurdish Alliance (with obvious allies) would have about 215-220 votes, well over the required ¾, and all they would have to make sure is to elect in advance by 2/3 a friendly three member Presidency Council amenable to such purpose. Such an amendment process may simply improve upon the TAL, currently much too sketchy and even contradictory to be of use for the longer run.

But the approach could go so far as to replace the TAL altogether by an entirely new constitution, along with a new amendment rule, and a new constitution making procedure or no new constitution making procedure at all if the ruling coalition so wishes. This is so in spite of the fact that the TAL has some supposedly unamendable provisions. The careless framers forgot to make Art 3A, the amendment rule itself unamendable, and after it were suitably amended, everything else could be changed as well.