For the first time in their history, Eritreans were engaged, as a soveriegn people, in the making of the basic document by which they would be governed. Regarded by Eritreans as the culmination of their legitimate struggle for national self determination, the Constitution became an integral part of this continuous and crucial struggle.

Written by a scholar and practitioner who led the process of constitution drafting in the newly independent Eritrea from 1994 to 1997, this book analyzes the process from beginning to end, recording in concise summaries the intensive public debates held in village and town meetings during that three-year period.

In this book, Bereket Habte Selassie identifies the constitution as a bulwark of a democratic system of government and defines a good constitution as one tested by the nature and degree of public participation in its making, hence his careful attention to the drafting process. In addition to describing the process of constitution making, he also uses chapter-to-chapter text analysis and commentaries to engage the reader in important discussions on the Eritrean constitution itself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BEREKET HABTE SELASSIE was the chairman of the Constitutional Commission of Eritrean, which led the process of consitution drafting in the country from 1994 to 1997. An author with rare combination of decades of legal practice and teaching, he has written extensively on consitutional issues and is currently the William E. Leuchtenburg Distinguished Professor of African Studies and Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at chapel.

CATEGORY
Political Science, Law/AFRICA