The Constitution

I vaguely remember when the St Helena Constitution(actually THE CONSTITUTION OF ST. HELENA, ASCENSION AND TRISTAN DA CUNHA) was first published. I think I flicked through put it away on the shelf and did not give it a further thought.

Now if not every day then at least once a week I dip into it. Usually to clarify something or just to become more familiar with it.

I have come across a few odd things:

That you can deprive someone of their liberty:  in the case of a person who is, or is reasonably suspected to be, of unsound mind, addicted to drugs or alcohol, or a vagrant, in order to care for or treat him or her or for the protection of the community.

This goes way beyond any mental health legislation that I know of as in the UK you cannot detain someone for alcohol or drug addiction.  As for detaining 'vagrants' it conjures up images of a dictatorships where before a visit from the dictator all of the homeless people are rounded up to clean the streets before the cavalcade arrives.

Of course the other one is the ridiculous 'secrecy oath'. We still have to get this removed.

I have become quite interested in constitutions generally.  There is a Google sponsored project on constitutions: 

www.constituteproject.org

They are publishing constitutions from countries around the world.  I sent them our one.  The last time I looked it was not on the site but they did say that they would consider publishing constitutions from territories as well.

I find the whole idea of constitutions very interesting. Attempting to write down how a society will function and trying to give an indication of its culture is always going to be difficult.

I am currently reading an introduction to the British Constitution.  To be honest I did not think that the UK had one but it is an 'unwritten' constitution.  A collection of documents, conventions and practices rather than a single document.  It has served the UK well but I would rather that they had a written constitution though it would be a mammoth task. They do not tend to be that long but not easy to write.

Of course any constitution can just be a piece of paper if it is not used and seen to be used.  I would not to emulate the American model where the constitution of the United States is treated with an almost religious reverence.  Change should not occur lightly but changing and reviewing the constitution should be conducted from time to time.  If we don't we will never get to remove the dreaded oath.

Above all the constitution must protect the people from overbearing governments and champion their individual liberties. That is why it is important that we all have some knowledge of its contents.  

We never know when we are going to need it to protect us.