Law and Revolution: Legitimacy and Constitutionalism After the Arab Spring by Nimer Sultany

Abstract

The Arab Spring brings about images of upheaval and protest along with feelings of agitation, unrest, anxiety and anticipation for change. Amid these strong emotions and uprisings, the legal aspects of revolution might appear to be comparatively unimportant and too intrinsic and technical. In his book, ‘Law and Revolution: Legitimacy and Constitutionalism After the Arab Spring’, author Nimer Sultany emphasizes that in addition to these initial impressions of the Arab Spring, the role of law is extremely significant, presenting arguments which are both, theoretical and pragmatic in nature. While his primary focus is on Egypt and Tunisia, he has comparatively analysed other Arab countries such as Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Morocco and Algeria. Furthermore, he has scrutinized the American Revolution, French Revolution and transformations in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union to review the historical context of revolutions and the role of law in each of the cases. Not only has he compared constitutions and legal systems of countries during different periods of time, but he has also drawn a continuous comparison and contradiction between concepts such as ‘rupture’ and ‘continuity’, ‘reform’ and ‘revolution’ and ‘revolution’ and ‘constitution’, which may or may not be dichotomous in nature; examining them from lenses of legitimacy and the law. The book is divided into three sections, each of which discusses legitimacy, the link between revolution and legality, and the relation between revolution and constitutionalism respectively