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Constitutionalism, Authoritarianism, and Imperialism in Iraq

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Constitutionalism, Authoritarianism, and Imperialism in Iraq BROWN6_0.DOC 8/7/2005 6:55:45 PM CONSTITUTIONALISM, AUTHORITARIANISM, AND IMPERIALISM IN IRAQ Nathan J. Brown* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction....................................................................................... 923 II. Iraq’s Constitutional History........................................................... 925 III. Executive Authority ......................................................................... 932 IV. National Sovereignty ........................................................................ 935 V. Legitimacy ......................................................................................... 938 VI. A New Beginning or a Return to the Past? ................................... 939 I. INTRODUCTION Countries make their own constitutional history, but not as they please. Constitutional drafters work not under circumstances chosen by themselves but under circumstances directly found, given, and transmitted from the past. As a group of Iraqis assemble to constitute a new polity, they will find themselves forced to cope with the legacies of several past constitutional * Senior Associate, The Democracy and Rule of Law Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The George Washington University; B.A. University of Chicago, 1980; M.A., 1983, Ph.D., 1987, Princeton University. Professor Brown specializes in Middle Eastern politics, more specifically, on issues of constitutionalism, the rule of law, and democracy in the Arab world. 923 BROWN6_0.DOC 8/7/2005 6:55:45 PM 924 Drake Law Review [Vol. 53 experiments. While many writings on constitution drafting idealize the experience as a moment of transcendental self-definition, Iraqis confront an extraordinarily difficult situation. The legacy of Iraqi constitutions since 1925 offer little to those seeking to achieve three of the primary purposes that constitutions have been designed to serve. The first purpose—and the one most cited by those interested in constitutions and constitution drafting—consists of defining the authority of public officials.1 Yet Iraqi constitutions have, with varying degrees of frankness, placed critical matters outside of any meaningful mechanisms of accountability. The second purpose, far less cited in the literature on constitution drafting, consists of affirming and supporting national sovereignty.2 Here Iraqi drafters will find a more checkered record, but both the country’s first constitution and its most recent have been partially imposed and betray this origin in several critical clauses undermining the country’s sovereignty. The third purpose focuses more on empowering than limiting— constitutions are often used to build legitimate and effective institutions.3 In Iraqi history, however, constitutions have generally been issued in ways that have undermined their own legitimacy; the critical problem has been a lack of inclusiveness in constitution drafting. Can Iraqis discover elements in this history to draw on in their struggle to reconstitute their political system? This Article will briefly review the constitutional history of Iraq, consider the extent to which past documents have constrained state power (especially the authority of the executive), examine the relationship between the constitutions and sovereignty, and probe the relationship between constitutions and legitimacy in the country’s past. The final part of this Article will turn attention to current attempts to write a permanent constitution, examining whether any successful effort might draw on the past or must only repudiate it. This inquiry is not explicitly comparative; that is, it focuses only on Iraq. But it is an effort to engage in what Professor Kim Lane Scheppele has termed “constitutional ethnography,” which she defines as “the study of the central legal elements of polities using methods that are capable of recovering the lived detail of the politico-legal landscape.”4 Professor 1. NATHAN J. BROWN, CONSTITUTIONS IN A NONCONSTITUTIONAL WORLD: ARAB BASIC LAWS AND THE PROSPECTS FOR ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENT 195 (2002). 2. Id. 3. Id. at 196. 4. Kim Lane Scheppele, Constitutional Ethnography: An Introduction, 38 BROWN6_0.DOC 8/7/2005 6:55:45 PM 2005] Constitutionalism, Authoritarianism, and Imperialism in Iraq 925 Scheppele suggests implicit comparative work by urging that such study— even while it is grounded in “lived detail”—should be conscious of a broader array of constitutional experiences rather than confined to a single national case.5 It is this sort of implicit comparative spirit that will guide this Article: the Iraqi experience will be viewed in the context of Arab constitutional experiments as well as broader postcolonial and authoritarian situations. It will also work to counteract the tendency of much constitutional analysis to adopt an overly celebratory tone; this Article is informed by a belief that global constitutional analysis must focus more attention on the less liberal aspects of constitutionalism and the less successful instances of constitution drafting. II. IRAQ’S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY6 The Ottoman Constitution of 1876 was the first written text to govern Iraq. But its viable life was quite short—suspended in 1878, the Ottoman Constitution was restored in 1908, but in 1914 Great Britain invaded the area, moving slowly (but not steadily) northward. Britain completed its occupation of Iraq shortly after World War I ended. Subsequently awarded a mandate from the League of Nations, Britain was obligated to justify its occupation of the country by agreeing to develop Iraq for independence. Thus, after suppressing a rebellion, Britain moved to construct an independent Iraqi government. In 1921 Faysal was brought in as king; he was a British ally from Mecca, which is located in what is now Saudi Arabia, who had been recently ousted by the French from Syria. Before formally assuming the throne, the British arranged for a measure of popular legitimacy: the Iraqi Council of Ministers endorsed a resolution supporting Faysal’s assumption of the throne, provided that his government be “constitutional, representative and democratic” as well as “limited by law.”7 A process was then carried out in which residents of the country were asked whether they supported the resolution. While this process was presented externally as a referendum (answered by an overwhelming majority in favor), it would have appeared internally as a loyalty oath.8 LAW & SOC’Y REV. 389, 394-95 (2004). 5. See id. at 390-91. 6. Portions of the analysis in this section have been adapted from the Author’s recent book, BROWN, supra note 1. 7. GREAT BRITAIN COLONIAL OFFICE, REPORT ON 'IRAQ ADMINISTRATION: OCTOBER, 1920-MARCH, 1922, 14 (n.d.). 8. The process presented the following form to “representative committees”: BROWN6_0.DOC 8/7/2005 6:55:45 PM 926 Drake Law Review [Vol. 53 The British then set to work drawing up a constitution for Iraq. The document was originally drawn up by British officials in Baghdad who based their work primarily on the Ottoman Constitution, though other constitutions were consulted.9 The Egyptian Constitution, then being drafted, was influential, especially concerning rights provisions.10 The officials submitted the draft to the colonial office in London and to King Faysal shortly after he took the throne.11 The original draft was sufficiently a British product that it was initially drafted in English.12 While the constitution was drafted, the British also sought to negotiate a treaty to govern their relationship with the Iraqi government. The British had drafted both the constitution and the treaty to their liking, but the documents required the assent of the Iraqi authorities to endorse them and make them work. The Iraqi Cabinet proved reluctant to support a treaty that codified rather than replaced the mandate. Accordingly, the British pledged to support eventual Iraqi entrance to the League of Nations (an implicit sign of independence) and to renegotiate the treaty after only four years. The Cabinet also insisted that the treaty be submitted to a Constituent Assembly for final approval. That step led some Shi`i leaders to call for a boycott of the elections, arguing that the Constituent Assembly would effectively be a body that would only sanction British occupation. 13 Nevertheless, a Constituent Assembly was elected in We, the undersigned residents of Nahiyah/Mahallah in Qadha/Town of [_________], in the Liwa of [________] have heard, understood and fully considered the above Resolution of the Council of State, and it results that [________] express themselves in agreement therewith, and profess their allegiance to Amir Faisal while [__________] have signified their dissent. Id. 9. See Nigel G. Davidson, The Constitution of Iraq, 7 J. COMP. LEGIS. & INT’L L. 41, 44 (1925) (noting that the political leaders had “gained their experience under the pre-war Turkish Constitution” and thus, “the Turkish Constitution [was] taken as the most important, though not the only, precedent”). 10. Id. at 44-45. 11. Ahlam Husayn Jamil, AL-KHALIFYYA AL-SIYASIYYA WA-L-IJTIMA`IYYA LI-L-AWDA` ALLATI KAN YUTABBIQ FI THULLIHA DUSTUR 1925 FI AL-`IRAQ [THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND TO THE CONDITIONS IN WHICH THE CONSTITUTION OF 1925 IN IRAQ WERE APPLIED] 13-14 (1986). 12. E. M. Drower, Foreword to C. A. HOOPER, THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF `IRAQ, at vii (Gaunt, Inc. 1998) (1928). 13. GREAT BRITAIN COLONIAL OFFICE, REPORT BY HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF 'IRAQ:
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