Iceland – Constitutional revision process details

More details are emerging about the process of constitutional review in Iceland.

Iceland Review reports that the Icelandic parliament has appointed a constitutional committee. The committee has decided that a national assembly will be held on 6-7 November to discuss what elements of the constitution it is most important to review. The national assembly will comprise 1,000 people chosen at random from the electoral register.

Following the national assembly there will be an election on 27 November for a constitutional parliament, which will meet in February 2011. The parliament will comprise about 25 and 30 people. It seems as if the election will choose individuals and not party lists.

The constitutional committee will collate the findings of the national assembly and present them to the constitutional parliament.

It is unclear what the process will then be. Presumably, parliament will have to approve any recommendations for change and there may be a referendum. However, it is not clear how binding the recommendations of the constitutional parliament will be.

In any event, this is democracy at work indeed and it seems to be part of a general move towards greater public participation in the decision-making process via a system of national and regional assemblies. (See here.)

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