Other than the Bible, it is doubtful that any document on the face of the earth is scrutinised and questioned to the same degree as a constitution.
Constitutions are built to last – they should be designed to outlive administrations and transcend the small issues of the day.
So when their authors sit down to write a constitution, they ought to take their time – and they ought to know what they are doing.
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) constitutional review working group finished the final draft of a proposed new constitution in a seven-hour marathon session on Friday, and failed to hand in a completed report to Union Forum.
Despite the group’s dissolution on the deadline, its members are still writing parts of the report that were initially left out.
No external members of the union sat on the group, a major departure from the last constitutional review working group, which was populated with experts on the union with years of experience.
Why was the group rushing to write such an important document? The deliverables of the group’s terms of reference don’t require the group to draft up a constitution – merely a report on the current one, and “should it see fit”, a new draft constitution.
The group decided early on to write a drastically altered new proposed constitution to bring to Union Forum. They have saddled the current administration with a rushed review that realistically needs more expertise and – most importantly – time.
Furthermore a bulk of the group have now moved on from College and had never been elected in a sabbatical election or had any experience writing a legal document.
TCDSU needs a constitution that has been well thought through and considered by legal experts and former union officers with experience – not a rush job. A hastily written report of the current constitution’s issues is not a good foundation for a new one.
