Constitutional crisis

In

Constitutional crises may arise from conflicts between different branches of government, conflicts between central and local governments, or simply conflicts among various factions within society. In the course of government, the crisis results when one or more of the parties to a political dispute willfully chooses to violate a law of the constitution; or to flout an unwritten constitutional convention; or to dispute the correct, legal interpretation of the violated constitutional law or of the flouted political custom. This was demonstrated by the XYZ Affair, which involved the bribery of French officials by a contingent of American commissioners who were sent to preserve peace between France and the United States.^[4] The incident was published in the American press and created a foreign policy crisis, which precipitated the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Opposition to these acts in the form of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions cited that they violated freedom of speech and exhorted states to refuse their enforcement since they violated the Constitution.^[4]

When the crisis arises because the constitution is legally ambiguous, the ultimate resolution usually establishes the legal precedent to resolve future crises of constitutional administration. Such was the case in the United States presidential succession of John Tyler, which established that a successor to the presidency assumes the office without any limitation. Politically, a constitutional crisis can lead to administrative paralysis and eventual collapse of the government, the loss of political legitimacy, or to civil war. A constitutional crisis is distinct from a rebellion, which occurs when political factions outside a government challenge the government's sovereignty, as in a coup d'état or a revolution led by the military or by civilians.

Africa

Democratic Republic of the Congo

• The
  coup later that month, then restored Kasavubu as president.^[5]

• Egypt experienced a constitutional crisis when
  Egyptian Revolution. The country was left without a president until President Mohamed Morsi was elected and then again when Morsi was arrested by the Egyptian Armed Forces in a 2013 coup d'etat until President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took office.^[6][7]

• A constitutional crisis occurred in Malawi in 2012 with regard to the succession of
  constitutional crisis. Vice-President Joyce Banda
  eventually succeeded wa Mutharika.

• Following the victory of Adama Barrow in the 2016 presidential election, president Yahya Jammeh rejected the results and refused to step down.^[8] On 17 January, Jammeh declared a 90-day state of emergency in an attempt to extend his term of office. Senegalese, Ghanaian and Nigerian forces entered the Gambia on 19 January to enforce the election results.^[9] On 21 January, Jammeh stepped down and left the country.

Rhodesia

• Amid demands from British politicians to enfranchise the black majority population as a condition for independence, the white minority government of Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence in 1965. The UK rejected the declaration and continued to claim sovereignty over Rhodesia until a framework for independence and black enfranchisement was negotiated in the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement.^[10]

South Africa

• The Coloured vote constitutional crisis (1951–55): The National Party government disputed a Supreme Court decision overturning its Separate Representation of Voters Act to disenfranchise Coloured voters in the Cape Province. Its attempt to reverse the decision in an ad hoc court was also overturned, after which the party used reforms to the Senate to pass the measure legally.

Asia

Iran

• Mohammed Mossadegh and Mossadegh's subsequent refusal to quit the office, leading to the 1953 Iranian coup d'état
  .

• 1966 Sarawak constitutional crisis started by a group of politicians who were dissatisfied towards Stephen Kalong Ningkan's leadership as chief minister. Ningkan was later removed from the chief minister post by the Governor of Sarawak in June 1966.
• The
  Tun Salleh Abas
  from his seat.
• The
  Mahathir bin Mohamad
  successfully amended the constitution to make the monarchies more accountable to their actions.
• The
  2020 Malaysian constitutional crisis was a series of events that began when Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
  and associates attempted to replace his coalition partners and form a unity government supported by opposition parties.

• Supreme Court Chief Justice
  impeaching
  him, but backed down after a warning from the armed forces. Faced with a choice of accepting Sharif's demands or dismissing him, Leghari resigned. Ali Shah resigned shortly afterward, establishing Sharif's dominance.
• Following a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan on 8 March 2022, a constitutional crisis occurred when the deputy speaker of the National Assembly rejected the no-confidence motion on the 3rd of April 2022. President Arif Alvi subsequently dissolved the national assembly, upon advice from the Prime Minister,^[11][12][13] which constitutionally could not be done by a Prime Minister who is facing a no-confidence motion.

Thailand

• The
  National Assembly of Thailand could not be elected, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
  refused to resign.
• The 2008 Thai political crisis.

Sri Lanka

• On the 26th of October 2018, President Maithripala Sirisena appointed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister and dismissed incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Ranil Wickremesing refused to accept the dismissal while stating that it was unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Europe

Austria

• The self-elimination of the Austrian Parliament in 1933, when all three speakers of the National Council resigned. Engelbert Dollfuss stated the parliament had eliminated itself and could rule by decree. This was a step towards the one-party fascist state, the Federal State of Austria.

Belgium

• The
  1940 Nazi invasion and refused to join the government in exile. Deported to Germany before Belgium's 1944 liberation, Leopold's return was narrowly approved in a 1950 referendum
  but a subsequent general strike prompted him to abdicate the following year.
• In 1990,
  Belgian Constitution
  , and Baudouin declared capable again.

• The
  Easter Crisis of 1920, when King Christian X of Denmark
  dismissed the country's cabinet.

• The 1215 Barons' revolt against the rule of
  King John, which led to the Magna Carta. Immediately, John repudiated Magna Carta, leading to the First Barons' War
  .
• The
  Henry VIII's first marriage with Catherine of Aragon impeded the king's efforts to produce a male heir. Henry repudiated the Pope's ecclesiastical authority within England and required all officials to recognize him as Supreme Head of the Church of England, allowing him to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn
  .
• Divine Right of Kings, manifest in his Personal Rule from 1629 to 1640, and leading directly to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
  .
• The
  Queen Mary jointly replaced him there was therefore no legally recognised Parliament to legitimise their irregular succession to the throne. This led to the Crown and Parliament Recognition Act 1689
  .

• The early 1930s political crisis in
  presidential republic. The succeeding constitutional reform was proposed by the Vaps Movement, who were however kept from power by the self-coup of Prime Minister Konstantin Päts, who was supported by the Riigikogu
  .

• The Brittany Affair of 1765: The king's court in
  Louis XV annulled the court's decree, most of its members resigned. The chief prosecutor, Louis-René de Caradeuc de La Chalotais
  , was accused of writing letters denouncing the king's action and charged with treason. A court convened to try La Chalotais reached no conclusion due to questions of jurisdiction and the weakness of the evidence. The king then transferred the case to his own council, further inflaming fears of absolutism to the point that he was obligated to release La Chalotais and yield to the provincial authorities.
• The
  Albert de Broglie to replace him. The National Assembly refused to recognize the new government and a crisis, which ended with the dissolution of the Assembly and new elections
  , ensued.

• Crisis of the Weimar Republic (1930–1933): A series of conservative chancellors appointed by President Paul von Hindenburg were unable to secure legislation from the Reichstag, dominated first by the Social Democratic Party and later the Nazi and Communist parties. These chancellors increasingly turned to legislation by emergency presidential decrees, thereby laying the constitutional foundation of Adolf Hitler's dictatorship.^[14]

Malta

• The
  Single Transferable Vote
  system, the party winning more than half the votes won fewer than half the seats in parliament.

Order of Malta

• In December 2016
  Order of Malta, dismissed its Grand Chancellor Albrecht von Boeselager for allowing the distribution of contraceptives in violation of the Catholic Church's policy. Boeslanger protested that the dismissal was irregular under the Order's constitution and appealed to Pope Francis. Francis ordered an investigation of the dispute, then demanded and received Festing's resignation. The Order elected Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto
  as Festing's successor on a program of constitutional reform and promoting religious obedience.

• better source needed]^[17]
• Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905^{[further explanation needed}
  ]

• Caesar's Civil War: In 50 BC the Roman Senate ordered Julius Caesar, a popular military general and territorial governor, to disband his army and return to Rome after he invaded Gaul and Britain. Rather than comply, Caesar crossed the boundary of his territory with a legion of his army intending to confront the government. The Senate retreated before his advance, allowing him to establish a dictatorship that set the template for the Roman Empire
  .

• The
  constitutional crisis of 1993: President Boris Yeltsin ordered the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet when it refused constitutional reforms that would allow him to implement his privatization program. After the Constitutional Court struck down Yeltsin's order, parliament impeached him and recognized a rival government of dissenting officials. Yeltsin used military force to disperse parliament, established a government by presidential decree, and pushed through a new constitution that increased the power of the presidency.^[18]

This covers the Kingdom of Scotland, which became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain after 1707. For constitutional crises since then, see United Kingdom below.

• The death of seven-year-old
  oath of fealty. Scottish nobles rejected Edward's control, leading to the Wars of Scottish Independence
  and a 10-year vacancy of the throne.

• 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis: The government of Catalonia under Carles Puigdemont held an independence referendum against instructions of the Spanish courts. The referendum passed by an overwhelming margin, albeit with limited voter participation, whereupon the Catalonian government declared independence
  . The Spanish government dissolved the Catalonian government, arrested pro-independence politicians and imposed direct rule from Madrid for more than half a year.

• 2023 Turkish constitutional crisis

Ukraine

• 2020-2021 Ukrainian constitutional crisis: The Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled much of Ukraine's 2014 anti-corruption
  reform unconstitional, placing the country's foreign relations at risk.

• The regency crisis of 1788: A new
  King George III was unable, due to illness, to charge it with its responsibilities or assent to any bills. Parliament nonetheless submitted an irregular bill that provided for George, Prince of Wales, to act as regent, and the Lord Chancellor Lord Thurlow
  affixed the royal seal to it without the king's signature. This precedent was repeated in 1811 after the king again fell ill.
• The House of Lords's rejection of the 1909 People's Budget, a proposal by Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George and President of the Board of Trade Winston Churchill entailing welfare reforms funded by taxes on landowners. This caused a two-year impasse, which ended after the Liberal Party won the January 1910 general election and the House of Lords ratified the law. However, the impasse resumed when Prime Minister H. H. Asquith introduced the Parliament Act permanently removing the House of Lord's veto over money bills and sharply limiting its veto over public bills, which the House of Lords blocked after the December 1910 general election ended in a hung parliament. King George V finally forced the House to ratify the law by threatening to end its Conservative majority by appointing hundreds of new peerages.^[19][20]
• The 1936
  King Edward VIII proposed to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson against the advice of his ministers. This was unacceptable to the leaders of the United Kingdom and the Dominions because Simpson was twice divorced and the Church of England, of which Edward nominally served as the head, forbade remarriage of divorcees if their spouses were still alive. Rather than ending their relationship the King chose to abdicate and his brother assumed the throne as King George VI
  .
• The
  Queen Elizabeth II to prorogue the British Parliament for five weeks. The decision was taken during contentious parliamentary debate over the United Kingdom's impending withdrawal from the European Union. In the unanimous R (Miller) v The Prime Minister and Cherry v Advocate General for Scotland decisions, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously found the prorogation to be illegal as preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification.^{[21][22][23][24][25]}

• In the
  governors-general from the British government, and the Statute of Westminster, 1931
  , that made each realm of the Crown independent.
• The 1936 abdication crisis, when King Edward VIII proposed to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson against the advice of his ministers.
• The 1982
  constitution was contentious, as there were conflicting opinions from the federal government, provincial governments, and Supreme Court over what exactly the procedure was for Canada to request a constitutional amendment from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Supreme Court's decision in the Quebec Veto Reference found that Quebec did not have a veto on patriation and the process for amendment used was legitimate and binding. The National Assembly of Quebec symbolically refuses to ratify the Constitution Act, 1982, in its current form.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• The 2008–2009 Canadian parliamentary dispute, in which Liberal, New Democratic, and Bloc Québécois members of Parliament attempted to vote non-confidence against the Conservative ministry and replace it with a coalition government, was unprecedented in the Canadian constitutional system. Prime Minister Stephen Harper controversially advised Governor General Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament to avoid the vote. The coalition effort subsequently fell apart, leaving the key questions around the dispute unanswered.

Honduras

• The 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis saw President Manuel Zelaya attempting to hold a non-binding referendum which Congress and the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional. The Honduran Armed Forces, following orders from the Supreme Court, arrested President Zelaya.

United States

• The
  Nullification Crisis of 1832: South Carolina proposed to nullify the federally enacted Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. President Andrew Jackson responded by signing the Force Bill to assert federal authority, and South Carolina agreed to the compromise Tariff of 1833.^[26]
• In 1841 presidential duties passed to Vice President John Tyler upon the death of President William Henry Harrison. The Constitution was unclear as to whether Tyler should assume the office of President or merely execute the duties of the vacant office. Tyler insisted that politicians recognize him as President and returned, unopened, all mail addressed otherwise. Despite opposition from some Whig members of Congress, including John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, both houses passed a resolution confirming Tyler's position. This precedent was later codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.^[27]
• The secession crisis (1860–1861): Sectional divisions in the Democratic Party resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln. Alarmed by Lincoln's intention to prohibit slavery in western territories, eleven southern slaveholding states withdrew from the federal union and formed a confederacy. Lincoln refused to recognize the secessions and restored the states to the union by force in the Civil War.^[28]
• 1876 presidential election: Republicans and Democrats disputed voting results in three states. An ad hoc Electoral Commission, created by Congress, voted along party lines in favor of Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes, in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South and ending Reconstruction.
• The 1952 steel strike: President Harry S. Truman nationalized the country's steel industry on the basis of his inherent powers in order to prevent a strike by the United Steelworkers that would impede the Korean War. This action reopened the "Great Debate" of 1950–51 regarding the extent of Truman's authority to counter the spread of communism. The Supreme Court annulled Truman's order in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, holding that presidential actions must proceed from constitutional or legislative authority. Truman used the threat of a second nationalization to push steel workers and management to an agreement.^[29][30]
• In the
  audio tape showing that he had personally approved the obstruction. Congressional moves to restrain presidential authority continued for years afterward.^[31][32]

• The 1936
  King Edward VIII proposed to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson
  against the advice of his ministers.
• The
  confidence of Parliament and will not call an election. Though the government lacked the confidence of the Senate, they commanded the confidence of the lower house, where government is formed, and confidence motions introduced. Whitlam also stated his intention to call an election, but Kerr nonetheless dismissed him without prior warning and installed Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister, despite Fraser's inability to command the confidence of either house of Parliament. After Fraser's Liberal government passed several important appropriations bills, Kerr declared a double dissolution of Parliament and the 1975 federal election
  , which Fraser won in a landslide.
• In 2017, the
  dual citizenship. The issue arises from section 44 of the Constitution of Australia, which prohibits members of either house of the Parliament from having allegiance to a foreign power. Several MPs resigned in anticipation of being ruled ineligible, and five more were forced to resign after being ruled ineligible by the High Court of Australia, including National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. This became an ongoing political event referred to variously as a "constitutional crisis"^[33][34] or the "citizenship crisis".^[35]

• In the Fiji constitutional crisis of 1977, the winning party in a general election failed to name a government due to internal conflicts. The Governor-General intervened, appointing a prime minister from the opposition party.

Kiribati

New Zealand

• The 1936
  King Edward VIII proposed to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson
  against the advice of his ministers.
• The
  Constitution Act
  , which patriated the constitution from the United Kingdom.

• The Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis of 2011–2012 was caused by a disagreement, involving every branch of government including the Supreme Court, as to who the legitimate Prime Minister was. Specifically, whether Prime Minister Michael Somare's dismissal by the Speaker of the National Parliament while he was in hospital had been lawful. After ten months, the crisis was resolved peacefully by a general election.

Samoa

• The
  April 2021 Samoan general election resulted in legal challenges^[36] and a crisis.^[37]

• The
  Governor General Sir Iakoba Italeli intervened, removing the Prime Minister from office so that Parliament could decide who should form the government. Telavi sought in vain to ask the Queen of Tuvalu, Elizabeth II, to remove the Governor General. Parliament elected Opposition Leader Enele Sopoaga
  to the premiership.

• 1973 Chilean coup d'état: Accusing Salvador Allende's government of increasing authoritarianism, the Supreme Court, Comptroller General and Chamber of Deputies^[38] declared him out of order, and the Chamber urged the military to put an end to constitutional breaches. The military deposed Allende a few weeks later and abolished the constitution.

Peru

• Peruvian Constitution
  . Until the new constitution was written, he ruled by decree.

Venezuela

• 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis: The constitutional chamber of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled that the country's legislature, the National Assembly, was operating in contempt of the constitution due to prior rulings that some members had been improperly elected and assumed legislative power for itself. Politicians opposed to the government of President Nicolás Maduro, as well as Maduro's Prosecutor General, denounced the ruling for undermining the constitutional order, and the Tribunal rescinded it the following day. Maduro summoned a Constituent Assembly, nominally to draft a new constitution, but in practice to assert his authority against that of the National Assembly. As of 2021 the crisis remains unresolved, with National Assembly President Juan Guaidó claiming the presidency in opposition to Maduro.

See also

• Cabinet crisis

References