ConWatch: Week 1,818
Does Germany have a constitution yet? This week: Choose your favorite pseudo-constitutional adventure!
We here at The Bupkes enjoy having our fun with Germany’s not-constitution constitution, the Basic Law (Grundgesetz), every week. But did you know that Germany is not unique in having a not-constitution as a constitution?
That’s why we feel it is only fair to spend some time telling you about other places with not-constitution constitutions, which by satirical grace also sometimes go by the name Basic Law.
1. Hungary
The onetime one-half of a European empire, turned Nazi-ish state, turned Communist puppet regime, turned Applebaumian liberal dream, turned Applebaumian illiberal nightmare is governed by what it calls the Fundamental Law. Hardly basic!
Hungary likes to think of itself as the last post-Soviet state in Europe to shed, in 2011, its Soviet-era constitution for a new-and-improved, Western liberal democratic one. (And look how well that is working out!)
This perception is incorrect, of course, as such an esteemed accolade goes to former East Germany, which is still waiting for former West Germany to go through the same process.
While not a constitution in name, the Fundamental Law completed the entire Duolingo course tree in constitutionalism, so gets to rightfully consider itself as one.
Whereas Germany’s Basic Law has never evolved into a constitution, Hungary’s Fundamental Law enjoys the distinct honor of being a constitution that has devolved into something very base.
Hungary’s experience is a reminder of the important adage: If you don’t like the law, just change it.
2. Saudi Arabia
This newly established liberal kingdom might be in a desert, but it is very easy to reach. For a reasonable sum, one of its women will happily drive you there, taking the splendid main road into it, which has been freshly repaved using the pulverised bones of a former journalist.
Saudi’s subjects are governed by a legal document that will sound familiar to some of you: It’s called the Basic Law. But don’t get too excited: There are many aspects distinguishing it from Germany’s of the same name. For example, the Saudi not-constitution constitution outlaws, punishable by death, the phrase, “yes, but it’s a dry heat.”
The German one, by contrast, has elections.
For all their differences, however, the two have something significant in common. Each derives its authority from a higher power.
Whereas the Saudi Basic Law comes from the same place as the US Constitution — God — Germany’s Basic Law turns to an even higher, higher power: America.
3. Israel
Speaking of higher powers, the highest power of them all is getting to claim you have founded a secular, democratic state while basing that claim more than a little bit on theological notions of “homeland” for a particular religo-ethnic group.
Just like most other countries in the Middle East, the “only democracy in the Middle East” does not have a real constitution. It doesn’t even have a single document you can hang fundamental rights on. Instead, there is a random collection of laws1 that have been “adopted incrementally over time, are not formally defined, and most of them can be amended or annulled.”
No wonder some Germans feel such a deep-seated attachment to the other Germans they went on to deport and try to kill: a mutual appreciation for quasi-constitutionality, ethno-national supremacy2, and a colonizing spirit.
So, as you can see, Germany need not feel so ashamed and alone about its status as a country with a not-constitution constitution. To the contrary, it’s in good company.
All the cool kids are doing it.
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See link above: Dahlia Scheindlin. (2024, September 27). The Fight for a New Israel. Foreign Affairs.