The Arab Spring and the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development
CCSDD
March 3, 2013

As previously stated, the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development (CCSDD) recently co-hosted an international conference, "Constitutional Transformations in the Arab World Following the Arab Spring: Comparative Models," at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The event represented a partnership between the Washington D.C. and Bologna campuses of Johns Hopkins University, and trans-atlantic coordination between two research institutes of SAIS, the CCSDD and the Protection Project. The Conference represented one of the most important steps of the CCSDD's research project, "Transitional Law and the Challenge of the Arab Spring."

Several interns were instrumental in the planning of the Conference itself, including Research Intern, Chiara Monti. The Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development is now proud to present a wrap-up of the Conference with one of its speakers, Dr. Francesco Biagi.

1. What was the process that went into the planning and the development of the Conference? How did the Conference build upon the activities and programs of the Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development (CCSDD)?

The Conference was jointly organized by the Protection Project, the CCSDD and SAIS Bologna Center. I think that this was an example of a perfect coordination and synergy among Washington and Bologna, also because both Bologna Center and Washington Professors were speakers at the Conference. The reason why we decided to organize this Conference is because we wanted to discuss the most relevant issues concerning the constitutional transformations in the Arab World two years after the Arab Spring.

2. What were your overall impressions of the Conference? What were the highlights of the Conference?

The Conference was very successful for many reasons. First of all the quality of the talks given by the speakers was very high and this led to very interesting debates, especially during the Q&A sessions. Many people attended the Conference: the Penthouse was always almost full. Many SAIS students attended the Conference (in particular those who are attending Professor Frosini class), as well as Unibo students and professors. This underscores the fact that both old and new generation are extremely interested in what is going on in the Arab world. The speakers and the participants also came from all over the world.

3. Moving forward, what is the impact of the Conference? How is the CCSDD going to use the Conference in the pursuit of its project, "Transitional Law and the Challenge of the Arab Spring?" How will the project evolve as it moves forward?

This Conference was one of the most important steps of the CCSDD project, "Transitional Law and the Challenge of the Arab Spring". This is a 3 years project (it started in September 2011) and during this event we were able to show the results we achieved up to this point. In particular, some of the speakers who gave a presentation during the Conference (including Professor Frosini, Professor Karim Mezran, Professor Duncan Pickard and myself) will be the authors of a book on the Arab Spring that will be published by the CCSDD by the end of this year. In addition to this, Professor Nathan Brown will write a chapter on Egypt.

5. What is the most important lesson to take away from the Conference in terms of constitutional transformation in the Arab World following the Arab Spring?

Morocco (in 2011) and Egypt (in 2012) already adopted new Constitutions: for these countries the biggest challenge is now to implement the constitutional provisions, in order to avoid the risk of having Constitutions that looks good on paper but have not implemented their full mandate. For Tunisia and Libya, the biggest challenge is the process of drafting the new Constitutions, which is an extremely divisive affair (e.g. role of the women, role of Sharia law, etc). Therefore North Africa seems to be a "work in progress" from a constitutional point of view.

Additional Resources

The Protection Project – More information from the website of The Protection Project, a human rights institute of The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Participant Biographies  – Biographies of the speakers who participated in the conference.

Editor's note: The links on this post were active as of June 2023. They may not be active in the future.