Vor dem Hintergrund der afrikanischen Verfassungs­ entwicklung: Das togoische Abenteuer der Conference Nationale Souveraine

In der Anfangsphase der Unabhängigkeit ließen sich die afrikanischen Verfassungen recht einfach klassifizieren: Die ehemaligen britischen Kolonien konzipierten ihre Verfassungen nach dem Westminster-Modell der Lancaster-House-Konferenzen; die ehemaligen franzö­ sischen Kolonien stützten sich entsprechend auf die französische Nachkriegs-Verfassung. Damit übernahm man weitestgehend europäisches Verfassungsrecht. Die Ursachen für diesen Vorgang hat jüngst Femandes Mendesl analysiert. Danach stellen eine der wesentli­ chen Ursachen die wirtschaftlichen Beziehungen dar, die das ehemalige sogenannte Mutterland mit der Ex-Kolonie unterhalten wollte.

Gemeinsam mit dem Einparteienstaat, dem ihm eigenen despotischen Regierungsstil und persönlichen Regiment, entstand eine eigene Ideologie. Luckman 5 bemerkt hierzu: "The single party-system reflected a basic consensus of opinion around the tasks of national reconstruction. In the anti-colonial period the mass nationalist party had been an expression of the united struggle against colonialism. In the post-colonial era, once the colonist had gone, there was no remaining division between rulers and mied, and therefore no need for conflicting parties. Provision in the political system for a formal 'opposition' would have meant straining to find a real basis (!) of opposition for the sake of preserving an imported model of democracy. Therefore, it was agreed, the parties should attempt to retain their pre-independence character of broadly-based national movements, representative of all shades of opinion. The multi-party system was repudiated as open to manipulate and misuse of regional tribal interest or by neo colonialist pressure." Ende der siebziger Jahre war das Einparteiensystem in Afrika faktisch Allgemeingut, wenn auch mit beachtlichen Unterschieden zwischen den einzelnen Systemen: Diese reichten von Einheitsparteien. die lediglich auf eine elitäre Oberschicht ausgerichtet waren, bis zu

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Almost everywhere the conferences (in francophone West Africa) have been held, there has been long debate on the idea of soverei gn ty -in the strict sense of 'belonging to the people'. Tue sup position therefore is that all power emanates from the 'general will' of the people following Rous seau's principle. However, it is begging the question to say that popular sovereignty has not existed in Africa in recent years. Tue heads of state and the chambers of registration and approbation which the parliaments had tumed into, only derive their pseudo-legitimacy from the elections, often in truncated form and contested to gunrule, to gagging the opposition and to rei gn of terror. In view of this, their sovereignty can only be limited if not non-existent There is therefore no point quibbling about a notion which owes more to abstraction that to a real political standard of beha viour. We might as weil accept that the cxmferences have awarded themselves a degree of sovereignty not embodied in terms of popular power."
Since its coming into force, the constitution proved effective in the democratic election of February 1992 and the subsequent inauguration of the members of the main institution of the state.

By Heinrich Scholler
The Transitional Constitution of Ethiopia (transitional period charter of Ethiopia of 22nd July 1991) states in Art. 2 that the different National Societies, the central and the regional powers have to decide to what extent they will adopt modern constitutional law or recur to traditional organisation of their societies. The Societal Script is the expression of internal not-wrinen political order, which has to be taken into consideration. Scholars have put emphasis on the fact that the Societal Script of different groups like the Tigray-amhara and the Oromo form a thesis and anti-thesis as vertical and horizontal structure in Society, which have to be reconciled. These competing structures of the different Societal Scripts could be organised in a federal system for allowing to have diversity on the regional and cultural level together with national or central unity. Modem and traditional law (Societal Scripts) must not remain an unsolved conflict.

Adventure of the National Conference in Togo
By

EA.B. van Rouveroy vanNieuwaal
During the last hundred years, Africa has seen profound political and constitutional changes the extent of which is closely linked to the respective colonial power. The African state is a juridical entity in international law, but was it also, at the time of independence, an empirical entity? In almost all cases the newly independent states in Africa kept a number of the European administrative officials who formerly represented the colonial state. lndependence, there fore, created a gap between the international legitimacy and the intemal legitimacy of many African states.
After the adoption of European constitutional law and with, initially, a high degree of similarity between most constitutions in French-speaking Africa, nowadays these constitu tions differ widely, contrary to Commonwealth Africa which has experienced fewer innovations and constitutional breakdowns. Parliamentary systems of government gave way to one-party systerns. This has been the political and constitutional development in Togo as well. The article thus describes the developments up to the present since General Gnassingbe Eyadema founded the Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais as the ruling single party in 1969.