2017 Melbourne Forum

The theme of the Second Melbourne Forum was From Big Bang to Incrementalism: Choices and Challenges in Constitution Building. Speakers from across the Asia Pacific region, who have been directly involved in constitution-building processes in their respective states and polities, explored the relative magnitude of constitutional change and the ways it was handled, in responding to constitutional moments. The Forum considered procedural aspects of managing significant constitutional change, by examining the choice between making a new constitution or amending an existing constitution. It explored the substance of major constitutional change, taking as examples moving between parliamentary and presidential systems of government and between unitary and federal or devolved arrangements. It also considered the ways in which key issues may be deferred during the constitution making process.

The Melbourne Forum on Constitution Building was jointly organised by the Constitutional Transformation Network and the Constitution Building Program of International IDEA. This year's Forum was hosted by the Department of Political Science of the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Concept note Forum program MF-17 report