Book Review: Africa: Constitutions of Nations

Date01 March 1967
DOI10.1177/002070206702200165
Published date01 March 1967
AuthorThomas M. Franck
Subject MatterBook Review
158
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Empire
and
the
creation
of
modern
Turkish nationalism;
and
the
rise
and
decline
of
British
imperial power
in
the
Middle
East.
What
Stephens
does
not
prepare
us
for
are
his
terminal
para-
graphs.
Apparently
there
were
three
quiet
periods
in
the history
of
Cyprus:
the
Byzantine
Greek,
the
Ottoman Turkish
and,
except
for
its
last
few
years,
the
British.
Its
most
lively periods, however,
have
been
when
it
was independent:
under
the
Lusignans,
and
since
1960.
It
seems
that
the
latter
is
to
be
preferred.
In
its
peaceful
condition,
"Cyprus
was
not
in
the
world's story"
whereas
as
a
Republic
the
island
is
"designed
for
an
historic role
as
a
link
between
the
civilizations
of
West and
East
and
as
'a
place
of
arms'
for
the
Near
East"
Without any
qualification,
Lebanon
is
described
as
an
example
of co-operation
between
Christians
and
Moslems
and
Latin
and
Orthodox,
a
model
that
should
be
taken
up
first
by
Cyprus
and
in
time
by
a
union
of
Israel
and
Jordan.
That
is
part
of
her
historic role;
the other
part
is
to
serve
as
a
United
Nations
base,
"a
place
of
arms"
to
keep
the
peace
as
far
away as
the
Persian
Gulf.
In
view
of
the
importance
Stephens
attaches
to
his
proposal,
one
would
have
expected
a
reasoned
assessment
of
the
impediments.
Yet
the
only obstacle mentioned
is
money
It
is
surprising
that
the
book
ends
in
this
way-
apart
from
an
un-
critical use
of
questionable
statistics
on
land
holdings,
the earlier
chapters
are
full
of
clear
insights,
shrewd observations and
professional
style.
It
draws
heavily
on
Hill,
Luke,
Alastos
and
Miller
among
others,
but
with
full
acknowledgement
of
the
indebtedness. Stephens
regards
the
work
as
a
political
essay
rather
than
of
original
scholarship,
and
hopes
that
the
book
will
enable
the
background
of
the
Cyprus
dispute
to
be
better
understood.
To
that
extent,
it
is
wholly
successful.
University
of
Western
Ontario
W
M.
DOBELL
Africa
CoNsTrru~oNs
op
NATIONS.
Volume
1-Africa.
By
Amos
J.
Peaslee.
1966.
(The Hague:
Martinus
Nijhoff.
xiv
ll08pp.
90.
guilders)
There
are,
of
course,
those
who
suspect
that
a
volume
of
African
constitutions
would
better
have
been
issued
in
a
looseleaf
binder,
by
one
of
those
weekly services
that
print
on
tissue
paper
and tell
you
which
of
the
previous
weeks'
entries
have
now
been superceded.
Of
the
thirty-six
African
nations to
be
represented
in
this
volume-
as
against
only
four
in
the
second
edition published
a
decade
ago-
eleven
have
undergone
violent
constitutional
change
since
the
new
edition
was
prepared
and
at
least
five
have fundamentally
altered
their
basic
law
by
constitutional
process.
Among
the
less
exciting
issues
raised
by
these
developments
is
the
usefulness
of
a
hard-cover
volume
of
African constitutions.
A
more
challenging
formulation
of
the
ques-
tion
is
whether
there
is any
future
for
constitutional
government
in
Africa.

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