Constitutional crisis

A constitutional crisis is a situation that the legal system's constitution or other basic principles of operation appear unable to resolve; it often results in a breakdown in the orderly operation of government. Often, generally speaking, a constitutional crisis is a situation in which separate factions within a government disagree about the extent to which each of these factions hold sovereignty. Most commonly, constitutional crises involve some degree of conflict between different branches of government (e.g., executive, legislature, and/or judiciary), or between different levels of government in a federal system (e.g., state and federal governments).

A constitutional crisis may occur because one or more parties to the dispute willfully chooses to violate a provision of a constitution or an unwritten constitutional convention, or it may occur when the disputants disagree over the interpretation of such a provision or convention. If the dispute arises because some aspect of the constitution is ambiguous or unclear, the ultimate resolution of the crisis often establishes a precedent for the future. For instance, the United States constitution is silent on the question of whether states are allowed to secede from the Union; however, after the secession of several states was forcibly prevented in the American Civil War, it has become generally accepted that states cannot leave the Union.

A constitutional crisis is distinct from a rebellion, which is defined as when factions outside of a government challenge that government's sovereignty, as in a coup or revolution led by the military or civilian protesters.

A constitutional crisis can lead to government paralysis, collapse, or civil war.

African Constitutional crises

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Patrice Lumumba

• President Joseph Kasavubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba attempted to dismiss each other in September 1960. General Mobutu Sese Seko deposed both in a coup later that month, then restored Kasavubu as president.

Asian Constitutional crises

Iran

• Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's 1953 dismissal of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and Mossadegh's subsequent refusal to quit the office

Nepal

• The Loktantra Andolan movement of 2006, which rejected King Gyanendra's year-long direct rule and stripped him of political authority

Pakistan

• Supreme Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah clashed repeatedly with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in late 1997, accusing him of undermining the court's independence. After Ali Shah suspended a constitutional amendment that prevented dismissal of the prime minister, Sharif ordered President Farooq Leghari to appoint a new chief justice. When Leghari refused, Sharif considered 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.

Thailand

• In March 2006, 60 seats of the National Assembly of Thailand could not be elected, and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra refused to resign. The judicial system did not lead up to Supreme Court as the top arbitrator so there were inconsistent rulings from the civil, criminal, administrative, and constitutional Courts.

European Constitutional crises

Belgium

• The World War II conduct of Leopold III included violation of constitutional principles, including surrender to Germany against ministerial advice. When he returned to Belgium in 1950, a general strike against him pushed him into abdication.
• In 1990, King Baudouin refused routine Royal Assent to the law on abortion in Belgium. The issue was resolved by (constitutionally but controversially) having Badouin temporarily declared incapable of reigning, the Council of Ministers giving assent as provided for in the Belgian Constitution, and Badouin declared capable again.

Denmark

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

England

For events after 1707, see below.

John of England signs Magna Carta. Illustration from Cassell's History of England (1902)

• 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 Break with Rome, in which King Henry VIII repudiated papal authority and created himself Supreme Head of the Church of England, leading to the English Reformation
• King Charles I's insistence on the Divine Right of Kings, manifest in his Personal Rule from 1629 to 1640, and leading directly to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
• The Glorious Revolution of 1688-89: The flight of King James II/VII from the country left no king in his place to rule England or Scotland or to summon a Parliament. When King William and 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.

Germany

• In 2010, a Berlin court upheld the City of Berlin's decision to not recognize the marriage of two homosexual persons, which is in opposition to the 2009 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court's decision that demanded full marriage equality for gay persons.

Malta

• The 1981 election, when, due to a quirk in that country's Single Transferrable Vote system, the party winning more than half the votes won fewer than half the seats

Norway

• Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905

Rome

• The crossing of the Rubicon by Julius Caesar in 49 BC with his legions. This action, which had no precedent, precipitated a crisis only fully resolved in 31 BC, when Octavian defeated all his enemies to become the sole master of the Roman world.

Russia

Tanks of the Taman Division shelling the Russian White House on 4 October 1993.

• The constitutional crisis of 1993: a conflict between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament led by Ruslan Khasbulatov, which resulted in a military siege of the parliament building and street fighting, claiming 187 lives. Aleksandr Rutskoy assumed the powers of the Acting President of Russia for a few days.

Scotland

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 succession crisis resulting from the death of Queen Margaret in 1290. Edward I of England, whose son Edward was to marry Margaret, was asked to arbitrate, and chose John Balliol, who swore an oath of fealty to Edward, turning Scotland into an English vassal in 1292. Soon, Balliol and the Scottish nobility revolted, leading to the Wars of Scottish Independence.

United Kingdom

• The rejection of the 1909 People's Budget by the House of Lords. This caused a two-year impasse, leading to the Parliament Act 1911.
• The 1936 Edward VIII abdication crisis, when King Edward VIII proposed to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson against the advice of his ministers.

North American Constitutional crises

Canada

• In the King-Byng Affair of 1926, Governor General Viscount Byng of Vimy refused the request of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to dissolve Parliament and call new elections after King had, months before, refused to resign. Instead, Byng dismissed King and appointed Arthur Meighen as Prime Minister, after which Meighen found himself unable to retain confidence, triggering his own resignation and an election. Reaction to the affair was reflected in the Balfour Declaration of 1926, the resulting separation of Dominion Governors-General from the British government, and the Statute of Westminster 1931 that made each realm of the Crown independent.
• The 1982 patriation of the British North America Act was contentious, as there were conflicting opinions from the federal government, provincial governments, and Supreme Court over what exactly the procedure was whereby Canada could request a constitutional amendment from the United Kingdom. The Quebec Veto Reference found that Québec did not have a veto on the patriation, leading to the current situation where the National Assembly of Québec refuses to ratify the Constitution Act in its current form, even though it is still bound by it.
• The 2008–2009 Canadian parliamentary dispute has been described by some writers as a constitutional crisis.

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 military, following orders from the Supreme Court, arrested President Zelaya.

United States

• The Nullification Crisis of 1832, in which South Carolina declared that it would not permit collection of a federal tariff.
• The death of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, in 1841: no President had ever before died in office, and the Constitution did not specify whether the incumbent Vice President John Tyler became President or Acting President.
• The secession of seven Southern states, which the federal government did not recognize, leading to the American Civil War.

The Electoral Commission was a panel that resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876.

• 1876 presidential election: Republicans and Democrats disputed voting results in three states. The Electoral Commission, created by Congress, voted along party lines in favor of Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes, who damped Southern fury by withdrawing federal troops from the South.
• 2000 presidential election: The Republican candidate George W. Bush and the Democrat candidate Albert Gore Jr. disputed the voting results in Florida which would have determined the victor in the presidential election in the year 2000. The United States Supreme Court intervened in the recount and then later in Bush v. Gore to declare Florida's recount method a violation of the Equal Protection Clause and allow the previous certification of victory to stand - giving George W. Bush Florida's 25 electoral college votes and 271 electoral college votes overall.

Oceanian Constitutional crises

Australia

• The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis saw the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam dismissed by the nation's Governor-General Sir John Kerr, in response to a prolonged budget deadlock in Parliament. This occurred even though Whitlam's government had the confidence of the lower house, the House of Representatives. In the Australian Constitution the Australian Senate has equal powers with the House of Representatives, except it may not initiate or amend a supply bill. It can, however, reject or defer consideration of a money bill, and that is what it did on this occasion.

Fiji

• 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.

Malaysia

• The 1983 Malaysian constitutional crisis saw Prime Minister Mahathir pushing forward an amendment of Article 66 of the Federal Constitution, which set the time limit of the Agong to veto a law within 30 days. The proposals generated a great deal of controversy between the government and the monarchy, of which the former had to launch a public campaign to pressure the monarchy to assent to the amendments.
• The 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis was a series of events that began with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) general election in 1987 and ended with the suspension and the eventual removal of Lord President of the Supreme Court of Malaysia Tun Salleh Abas from his seat.
• The 1993 amendments to the Constitution of Malaysia (by some interpretations a constitutional crisis) involved the limitation of monarchs' power in Malaysia. Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad successfully amended the constitution to make the monarchies more accountable to their actions.
• The 2009 Perak constitutional crisis occurred in the Malaysian state of Perak when party defections caused the state ruling coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, to lose its majority in the state assembly. The Sultan of Perak refused to dissolve the state assembly when requested and dismissed the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) while the Menteri Besar technically still had the confidence of the assembly.

New Zealand

• The New Zealand constitutional crisis of 1984 was caused by Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon's refusal to devalue the dollar as per the instructions of the Prime Minister-elect, David Lange. The cabinet rebelled against Muldoon, who relented. The upshot was the passage of the Constitution Act, which patriated the constitution from the United Kingdom.

South American Constitutional crises

Peru

• Peruvian Constitutional Crisis of 1992: President Alberto Fujimori, with the support of the armed forces, dissolved the Congress after it rejected his proposal for stronger action against Shining Path and MRTA. Then, he called for elections for a Democratic Constitutional Congress to write the 1993 Peruvian Constitution. Until the new constitution was written, he ruled by decree.