This is a founders-only class.
Taught by Dr. John Dinan, Associate Professor of Political Science at Wake Forest University.
John taught a similar course to last year’s group, and the discussions that were started in his course continued during the students’ trips to Philadelphia and Washington. The purpose of the “Comparative Constitutionalism” course is to examine the ways in which constitutions and political systems are designed in the United States and in European and Eurasian countries. For instance, how have various polities gone about establishing a constitution? What sorts of rights are appropriate for including in a constitution? How to design a constitution to limit the power of governing officials? And to what extent should the constitution of the U.S. or of any other countries serve as a template for emerging democracies that are drawing up constitutions for the first time? These questions and others will be explored through discussions, group activities, formal class debates, and internet research on the particular details of the political system of each student’s home country (or home state, in the case of the American students). Throughout this course, John is intent on conveying the understanding that citizens on both sides of the Atlantic are engaged in a common enterprise of seeking to design functioning constitutions and political systems, even if we may end up with differences in the particular structures and provisions in our respective countries.
Discussion about the Kosovo intervention during Constitution class, July 2nd 2007
Discussion of Iraq in Constitution Class, July 3rd, 2007
Iraq Debate - Constitution class