Constitution

The aim of Project Callipolis is to produce a constitution that meets the exigencies of the twenty-first century, yet also answers the age-old aspirations of humanity –the desire to form a community of republican citizens capable of establishing and maintaining just government. As such, the Constitution of Callipolis takes its bearings in the principles of individual liberty and responsibility, and it advances the ethos of civic respect that accompanies the work of self-government. 

 

The brainchild of Mr. Muwaffaq Salti, Project Callipolis was undertaken by four scholars who met over 2023-24 to draft a free constitution “within which human rights might thrive in the modern era.”  Our charge was to draft a constitution for a small republic. For our practical purposes, we chose a hybrid model that encompasses a range of geographic and demographic characteristics, derived from three countries of small size, viz., Malta, Singapore, and Cyprus. The population of our hybrid model ranges from approximately one half million to six million; the land mass of our hybrid spans 120 to 3500 square miles. The ethnic, racial, and religious makeup of our hypothetical template polity is to be considered diverse.

 

A note of caution: Our goal is not to devise the ideal regime or to propose a generic constitution that fits all times and places. To ignore practical circumstances is to be ignorant of politics. Instead, our purpose is to offer a model that might be useful to emerging states or societies engaged in constitutional revisions, that may guide statesmen and stateswomen in their prudential decision-making regarding the best laws for their particular polity and fellow citizens