South- Asian Economic Constitutionalism and the (Re) Building of Constitutional Order in South Asia

Abstract

The appellation ‘South Asia’ represents a vibrant set of post-colonial geographies that are witnessing transformative constitutional churning in their socio economic and political structures. Constitutional law studies about South Asian societies have generated interest in South Asian constitutionalism and how the region is tackling unstable democratic patterns. In this context, South Asian States have changed, amended and replaced their existing constitutional structures and forms of governance. In the recent past, the deeply divided region has witnessed two important crises, the 2021 Taliban offensive in Afghanistan and the 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis. Both crises despite their structural dissimilarities trace some parallelism in the factors that incited the democratic and non-democratic responses, i.e., lack of political consensus on economic governance and economic mismanagement by democratically elected governments. Besides its economic impact, the lack of constitutional order in managing the economy has also trickled down political repercussions. The crisis reflects the role that an accountable government should play in the market. Despite constitutional structures for economic governance and the establishment of government institutions, South Asian states are witnessing the withering of institutional mechanisms and delegitimization of rule of law. The paper argues for a need for the South Asian States to develop formative practices that focus on accountable constitutional governance of the economy and strengthening financial institutions. While South Asian constitutions have kept economic actions by the states outside the purview of judicial and public scrutiny, the lack of accountability and cynical manipulation of independence of economic institutions by the authoritarian leaders raises questions on the constitutional limits of the unbridled power and domination by the elected leaders. In this context, the paper explores how strengthening the pillars of Economic Constitutionalism can lead to the creation of a stable constitutional order in South Asia.