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Constitutional Convention
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Students might be interested in making comparisons between the various records of the debates of the Constitutional Convention (Madison's, Hamilton's, King's, and so on). For example, students can compare records for June 1 and/or June 4, using these resources available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School:
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The fourth Constitutional Convention met in Canberra in February 1998. The Convention was convened by Prime Minister John Howard to fulfill a promise made by his predecessor as Liberal leader, Alexander Downer.
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The Union League Club of Chicago ... posed the question: AN ILLINOIS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION IN 2008? A distinguished panel of experts responded with an article giving background information and a summary of the issues likely to be raised. That article is reprinted HERE with the permission of the Union League Club. The article is also referenced in the bibliography of the Con-Con Study Guide.
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Hypothetical Situation: You have been presented with an opportunity to author a document that will be sent backwards through time to be read at the beginning of the Constitutional Convention. The document must be 250 words or less, and you are not allowed to reveal any specific future events (no warnings about John Wilkes Booth, Pearl Harbor, Jimmy Carter, or the pending insolvency of Social Security, etc...) . The Founding Fathers convened in Philidelphia will have been made aware that this letter comes from the year 2007, but sworn to secrecy.
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Constitutional conventions are not obligatory, but are in effect procedural agreements which all sides adhere to. Some conventions evolve or change over time; for example, before 1918 the British cabinet requested a parliamentary dissolution from the monarch, with the Prime Minister conveying the request. Since 1918, prime ministers on their own initiative request dissolutions, and need not consult members of the cabinet. However conventions are rarely ever broken. Unless there is general agreement on the breach, the person who breaches a convention is often heavily criticised, on occasions leading to a loss of respect or popular support. It is often said that "conventions are not worth the paper they are not written on", ie, they are unenforceable in law because they are not written down.
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The first meeting of the Constitutional Convention was held on Thursday 8 May 1975. Robert Lowry, then Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, chaired the session. There were to be 30 sessions in total and the Report of the convention was published on 20 November 1975. The report represented the UUUC recommendations for the way forward and ... favoured a return to 'majority rule' with a series of Committees to monitor the working of government departments. The proposals were rejected by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), and the British government. Merlyn Rees, then Secretary of Sate for Northern Ireland, asked the Convention to reconvene on 3 February 1976 for a period of one month to consider the possibility of further progress.
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Constitutional Convention