Review Article: Afghanistan Legal Education Project, An Introduction to the Constitutional Law of Afghanistan (Stanford Law School, Rule of Law Program, 2nd Edition, 2015)

Abstract

The book under review is dedicated to exploring the history of the 2004 Afghanistan Constitution and providing an overview of the said document. This article aims to place the book and its underlying discussions in the context of the ground-level situation in Afghanistan. This article will contend that the book, while being well researched and engaging, does not sufficiently acknowledge the realities under which the 2004 Afghanistan Constitution has to operate. It will further elucidate how despite a few silver-linings, the constitution-making process and the eventual 2004 Afghanistan Constitution, both of which the book reflects rather positively on, suffered from flaws that pose as an obstacle to the Constitution’s endurance. The ultimate hope of this article is to use the book to highlight some of the do’s and don’ts in state-building and constitution-making in societies like Afghanistan as well as provide a springboard for future academic exploration.

Keywords: Afghanistan, Constitution, Constitutionalism, Constitution Making, State Building, Taliban, Ashraf Ghani, Hamid Karzai, Imposed Constitutionalism