How constitutionalism is embodied in the life of the people
Imagine a woman living in a remote village that she has never read her country’s Constitution. She may not know the names of the judges who interpret it or the parliamentarians who amend it. Yet every day her life is shaped by the success or failure of that constitutional order.
Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar) The Woman that the Constitution Has Never Met Imagine a woman living in a remote village that she has never read her country’s Constitution. She may not know the names of the judges who interpret it or the parliamentarians who amend it.
Yet every day her life is shaped by the success or failure of that constitutional order. When her child falls ill, the nearest clinic is hours away. When her land rights are challenged, the legal system speaks a language she does not understand.
When public decisions affecting her community are made, her voice rarely reaches the rooms where those decisions are taken. Officially, she is a citizen and statistically, she exists. Constitutionally, she enjoys the same rights as every other member of the nation.
Yet in practice, she often remains invisible, It is here that the true test of constitutionalism begins. The greatest measure of a Constitution is not the elegance of its clauses, the sophistication of its legal doctrine, or the prestige of the institutions created to defend it. Its ultimate test lies in its ability to reach those who have historically remained beyond the horizon of power.
