| The Constitutional transition is one of the most important issues in the research of the basic theory of Constitution.Thus,the constitutional changes,referring to the constitutional growing and evolution,can only be studied in the historical horizon,including the tangible and intangible changes.As the country earliest exploring to establish Constitution,Egypt has always been playing the role of the pioneer of the constitutional transition in Middle East and northern Africa.In this paper,the writer tries to make up for the weakness of the relevant study,to systematically look through the centennial history of Egypt's constitutional changes,and to summarize and deeply reflect the relevant problems.Besides the introduction part and the conclusion part,the whole PhD thesis is divided into five more parts.Part One“Newly Establishment of Egyptian Constitution in the Early modernization period”The writer focuses on how Egyptian constitution grows from nothing to the late-onset-extrinsic-source type.As the old-line centre of the civilization communication,Egypt entered the early modernization period after Napoleon Invasion in 1798.The temporary occupation by France lashed Egypt so strongly by the western civilization for the first time that the Nwan System was established in Egypt.Muhammad Ali tried to establish modern state administration and to absorb and fuse advanced European thoughts through the Europeanized reform.Then,Seyd and Ismael vigorously promoted the Europeanized reform to hold the consultative meeting which lay the foundation for the development of the representative system.The cutting of the Suez Canal aggravated Egypt's financial situation so much that the big foreign powers took the advantage of the occasion to found“mixed tribunal”and“European cabinet”and to establish“double-supervision system”,which resulted in the loss of Egypt's national sovereignty and made the autocratic monarchy was deep in crisis.“The National Act”was formally passed in 1897,which clearly reflected the principles of the representative system,stipulated the system of parliament government.Egypt's constitutional transition had a qualitative leap.Although it was not a real constitution,the Basic Law in 1882 has epoch-making significance.After the British occupied Egypt,the constitutive law was promulgated to establish the representative system,which made the political parties begin to appear in the political circles and take part in political affairs.In1992,Britain was forced to admit Egypt's nominal independence.Then,the new constitution was promulgated which was the first true constitution in Egypt's early modernization period.The implementation of this constitution met such a fix that the first constitutional crisis appeared in Egypt.In a word,the newly established constitution of Egypt staggered forward with hardship.Part Two“Egypt's Constitutional Reform in the reformation stage”This part is mainly on the establishment and the alternation of Egypt's constitution under the influence of the Nasserism,attempting to fully show the changing process of Egypt's constitution.The writer thinks political revolutions are the motive power of Egypt's constitutional changes.After the July Revolution in 1952,The Free Officers Movement headed by Nasser took control of Cairo in the name of defending the Constitution and forced King Farouk to abdicate.In 1923,the Constitution was finally abandoned.The Revolutionary Steering Committee released the temporary constitution declaration to consolidate the regime in the transition duration in 1953,which put an end to the Egyptian monarchy.Nasser defeated Muhammad Naguib in the struggle for power and finally formed the absolute rule under authoritarianism---Nasserism,including Nasser Centralization,Nasser Nationalism and Nasser Socialism.After March Crisis,Constitution of1956 was high passed in the referendum.Nasser,as the president of the United Arab,promulgated the Provisional Constitution of the United Republic of Arabia in Damascus after Egypt and Syria were united together,which further expanded the president's power.Nasser Socialism was fully embodied in the Constitution of 1964.However,the15thAuthorization Act in 1967 and the 94th Amendment in 1969 reflected that the Egyptian authoritarianism,with the feature of Presidential Dominance,weak parliament,and one-party monopoly,developed to the extreme.To sum up,Egyptian constitutional transition reformed the set rules to create new ones with its distinctive features.Part Three“Egypt's Permanent Constitution and constitutional amendment in transitional period”This part mainly analyses the constitutional changes in Sadat-Mubarak Era.The writer thinks that Sadat carried out rectification movement to promote the comprehensive transformation of the society after becoming the president.In order to strengthen his own rule,the permanent constitution,with its own characteristics,was hastily laid down in 1971.The new constitution provided Sadat with the legal basis to carry out political and economic reform.Sadat did the first amendment to the permanent constitution.After Sadat was assassinated,Mubarak,the successor,began the well-balanced transition to strengthen the legitimacy of the constitution and the democracy on the premise of maintaining the political stability.By the force of the internal and external pressure,Mubarak did constitutional amendments in 2005 and2007.In the transitional period,Egyptian constitutional changes focused on“amendment”.All the three constitutional amendments reflected the contradictions and conflicts in the political reform and unrest,which call for a lot of deep thoughts.Part Four The Constitution Crisis after“Jan 25th”Egyptian RevolutionThe writer mainly analyses the evolution and causes of the crisis.The Arabia Spring,beginning in 2010,swept away the Middle East.Mubarak dropped the reins of government after the revolution and Egypt fell into turmoil.The military led the constitutional amendment and put forward“going-beyond-Constitution policy”to expand power.They fought for the constitutional right by amending the constitution,which triggered the Egypt's constitutional crisis.Under the voice of the people,Mohamed Moris,the first freely elected president,appeared in Egyptian history.However,Mohamed Moris expanded his power so blindly through two constitutional declarations that the constitutional crisis was further exacerbated.Under military intervention,Mohamed Moris finally resigned his power.Egypt fell into a fierce conflict once again.Mansour,the interim president,issued Declaration of Constitution and presided over a new constitution.In early 2014,Egypt's new constitution was passed in the referendum.Abdelfattah al Sisi,the defense minister,was elected President.The writer thinks that Egypt's constitutional crisis is the inevitable outcome caused by the interaction of all the contradictions in the constitutional system,which is actually a sharp struggle for power by the Egyptian military,Muslim Brotherhood,and the secular,etc.The various political powers and religious forces fought strongly for the constitutional establishment and power distribution.Part five The Main Methods and Characteristics of the Egyptian Constitutional TransitionTo make a comprehensive survey about the history of Egyptian constitutional changes,the main changing routes of Egyptian constitution include three ways----constitutional reform,constitutional amendment,and constitutional interpretation.Egypt's constitutional transition is characteristic as Referendum and Military Dominance.The Egypt's constitutional transition also causes us to reflect a lot about how to deal with the relations between the western constitutionalism and the national constitutional culture,how to strengthen the constitutional supervision and maintain the stability and authority of the constitution,how to treat the legitimacy and relativity of referendum democracy,and how to rationally deal with the hundred years of conflict of between the religion and the authoritarian rule of the military,which is an important issue of the times.Therefore,the comprehensive survey about the experiences and lessons of Egyptian constitutional changes not only can help enrich the study on the theory of constitutional transition so as to accurately grasp Egypt's current political transition and its future development;but also can provide the necessary reference and enlightenment for Chinese government which will be helpful in resisting both the external risks and the domestic social unrest in our political reform. |
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