U.S. Constitution Losing Appeal Worldwide The New York Times reports the unenviable fact that the United States Constitution has ceased to be, well, the envy of the world according to a new study. While the first three decades that followed World War 2 were a high watermark for America’s founding document abroad, with foreign nations eager to adopt its tenets for their own constitutions, in the years since its influence has waned: “Among the world’s democracies,” Professors Law and Versteeg concluded, “constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s.” The U.S. is no longer seen to be the trendsetter in the “constitutional marketplace” according to David S. Law, one of the study’s authors. Why? Because the U.S. Constitution guarantees a relatively limited number of rights, while increasingly admired countries like Canada offer a much longer list. As the New York Times’ Adam Liptak puts it: The Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education, and health care. Then again saying it doesn’t make it so. The study’s authors also found a link between undemocratic countries and the use of nice-sounding constitutional rhetoric, the likes of which you’ll see in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the course of their investigation.Indeed. North Korea, anyone?
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U.S. Constitution Losing Appeal Worldwide

The New York Times reports the unenviable fact that the United States Constitution has ceased to be, well, the envy of the world according to a new study. While the first three decades that followed World War 2 were a high watermark for America’s founding document abroad, with foreign nations eager to adopt its tenets for their own constitutions, in the years since its influence has waned:

“Among the world’s democracies,” Professors Law and Versteeg concluded, “constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s.”
The U.S. is no longer seen to be the trendsetter in the “constitutional marketplace” according to David S. Law, one of the study’s authors. Why? Because the U.S. Constitution guarantees a relatively limited number of rights, while increasingly admired countries like Canada offer a much longer list. As the New York Times’ Adam Liptak puts it:

The Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education, and health care.
Then again saying it doesn’t make it so. The study’s authors also found a link between undemocratic countries and the use of nice-sounding constitutional rhetoric, the likes of which you’ll see in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the course of their investigation.Indeed. North Korea, anyone?

Source: topix.com