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Comparative Constitutionalism and Good Governance in the Commonwealth Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 June 2009
A constitution enjoys a special place in the life of any nation. It is the supreme and fundamental law that sets out the state's basic structure including the exercise of political power and the relationship between political entities and between the state and the people. As the former Chief Justice of South Africa, Justice Ismail Mohammed, once observed, a constitution is not simply a statute which mechanically defines the structures of government and the relations between the government and the governed, but it is:
[A]mirror reflecting the national soul, the identification of the ideals and aspirations of a nation; the articulation of the values binding its people and disciplining its government.
It also shapes the organisation and development of a society both for the present and for future generations. As the Preamble to the Constitution of Uganda 1995 puts it:
we the people of uganda committed to building a better future by establishing a socio-economic and political order through a popular and durable national Constitution … do hereby … solemnly adopt, enact and give to ourselves and our posterity, this Constitution of Uganda.
This notion is in sharp contrast to that of the colonial period and much of the immediate post-colonial period. This chapter therefore examines the history of constitutionalism in the ESA states prior to 1990 and traces the reasons for the making of new constitutions in the 1990s.
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