Alviar García, Helena --- "Gender structures and constitutional law" [2013] ELECD 887; in Frankenberg, Günter (ed), "Order from Transfer" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 81

Book Title: Order from Transfer

Editor(s): Frankenberg, Günter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781952108

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Gender structures and constitutional law

Author(s): Alviar García, Helena

Number of pages: 6

Abstract/Description:

In the last four decades, countries around the world have drafted new constitutions and created new government institutions and laws. As a matter of fact, more than half of all written constitutions in the world were made after 1974. From a traditional perspective, there is a convergence in global constitution-making processes. According to this view, most contemporary constitutions include a similar vocabulary and basic values such as fundamental freedoms, human rights, and separation of powers. In addition, and due to international trends and treaties which are a product of globalization, most constitutions have included gender equality provisions. Günter Frankenberg in the introduction to this book describes this mainstream interpretation of constitution-making in the following terms: What reads like one of the many narratives of globalization focuses on the fact that the modern constitutional idiom, though always geared toward and entangled in a specific local or regional and historical context, has proliferated worldwide, with liberal constitutionalism holding a hegemonic position. This (not all that innocent) narrative may be referred to as the globalization of the modern idiom creating a “global constitution.” … However, in its flat, one-dimensional version, this narrative has very little to say about how such globalization happens, what happens when globalization happens, and whether it is challenged by globalization – alternatives to the liberal-western paradigm. An example of this style of analysis is Kristin Van der Leest in her study: “Engendering Constitutions: Gender Equality Provisions in Selected Constitutions.”