The Invisible Constitution in Comparative Perspective

on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, as Recommended by the General Convention at 

Philadelphia, in 1787, 2nd edn (Washington, DC: Jonathan Elliot, 1836), Volume II, 344.

16 

Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton, The Endurance of National Constitutions 

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 1.

17 

Ibid.

, 2.

18 

Cf Constitution of Iraq 2005. In the Preamble, the text describes ‘this permanent Constitution’.

19 

Constitutional Declaration of the National Transitional Council of Libya 2011, Preamble; Tran-

sitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011, ch. II; Interim National Constitution 

of the Republic of the Sudan 2005, s 226(8); Constitution of the United Arab Emirates 1971, 

Preamble, Article 144(3),(4).

20 

Interim Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1993.

21 

Law on the Major Constitutional Provisions (Albania) 1991, Article 44(1).

---

174 

Caitlin Goss

constitution’

22

 arguably implying that the difference between the interim text 

and the more final text is the very temporariness of the transitional document.

In the course of my analysis of interim constitutions in the modern era,

23

 

I have studied the temporary constitutions of: Albania,

24

 Poland,

25

 South 

Africa,

26

 the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

27

 Iraq,

28

 Sudan, Thailand

29

 

and Nepal.

30

 Additionally, I studied the ‘border case’ of Hungary: the 1989 

text of the Constitution of Hungarian

31

 was an amended version of the 1949 

Communist Constitution.

32

 In its ‘Preamble’, it is stated that the text is to 

operate ‘for the period before the enactment of the new Constitution of the 

country’. Thus the Constitution is formally a temporary one, even though it 

remained in place (in a heavily amended fashion) until the Fundamental Law 

of 2011. Many, though certainly not all scholars writing on the period, have 

referred to the 1989 text as having initially been intended to be temporary.

33

22 

Constitutional Provisions Continued in Force Pursuant to Article 77 of the Constitutional Act of 

17th October 1992 on the Mutual Relations Between the Legislative and Executive Institutions 

of the Republic of Poland and on Local Self-Government, Repealing the Constitution of the 

Republic of Poland of 22nd July 1952, 1992, Preamble.

23 

I have attempted to review most of the interim constitutions adopted between 1989 and 2010, 

and have not included analysis of the more recent interim constitutions adopted in Egypt 

and Libya due to the recency and fluidity of those transitions. See Constitutional Declara-

tion (Egypt) 2011; Constitutional Declaration of the National Transitional Council of Libya,  

note 19.

24 

Law on Major Constitutional Provisions 1991.

25 

Constitutional Act of 17th October 1992, on the Mutual Relations Between the Legislative and 

Executive Institutions of the Republic of Poland and on Local Self-Government Dziennik Ustaw 

Nr 84 Poz 426 1992.

26