The constitutionalism of developing countries : some lessons from the U.S. constitutional convention

The aim of the article is to analyze the possible challenges in the process of establishing constitutional frameworks in developing countries from the perspective of lessons learned from the American constitutional experience. The United States was the first country to adopt a modern constitution, which not only is still in force, but has also been used several times as a role model for other countries in their process of evolution from non-democratic regimes to rule of law systems. The purpose of the analysis is to derive constructive conclusions from the research of the process of establishment of the first modern written constitution, which could be helpful in overcoming obstacles and obtaining final success in similar processes occurring in contemporary developing countries. The author argues that the developing countries involved in modern constitutional processes should look not only into the content of the role-model documents, but - above all - into the whole concept of constitutionalism, as well as the political and social impact of the debates on the character of the document