The Constitutional System of Nepal: A Contextual Analysis

The book presents an evolutionary view of Nepal’s constitutional system, grounded in the country’s historico-political context.

In particular, the analysis focuses on three aspects. First, the book investigates Nepal’s processes of state formation and nation-building, centred on the institution of the Shah monarchy, Hinduism, and the Nepali language vis-à-vis Nepal’s high degree of socio-cultural diversity. Second, it explores the difficulties in democratising Nepal’s constitutional arrangements and entrenching the doctrine of popular sovereignty. This is reflected in the tensions between hereditary political power (the Shah monarchy and the Rana Prime Ministers) and representative political forces (political parties). Constitutionally, these tensions have resulted in the marginalisation of the legislature vis-à-vis the executive throughout the country’s history, notwithstanding the fact that Nepal has always featured a parliamentary form of government.

Lastly, the frequent changes in Nepal’s fundamental law also reflect the profound influences of various foreign institutional models (in particular that of a ’modified’ Westminster model) and their specific re-negotiation in the Nepali context, regardless of the fact that Nepal was never colonised.

Mara Malagodi is Reader in Law at Warwick Law School, UK.