Constitution of Tunisia, Venice Commission and International Constitutionalism

With the adoption of the new Constitution on January 26, 2014, Tunisia completed the long and difficult constitutional process which began over three years earlier, in the aftermath of the Jasmine Revolution, and which was marked by a complex transition from authoritarianism to democracy (Ben Achour and Ben Achour 2012). The Constitution – approved almost unanimously, with 200 votes, 12 against and 4 abstentions – by the Assemblée Nationale Constituante (ANC) – elected by proportional electoral system in October 2011 and composed of representatives of a wide variety of political parties – placed Tunisia “in a unique position, because is the only country in which the Arab Spring gave rise to a new constitutional settlement that replace an authoritarian regime whit a democratic one in a process in which the electorate was properly represented” (Grote and Röder 2016, 26). The Tunisian constitution-making process included the participation of the population, a number of other actors, but also, albeit not widely recognized, the European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission.