The Risks of Semi-Presidentialism in Emerging Democracies (with Mr. Duncan Pickard)

The issue of the division of power is the most fundamental unresolved question in the draft constitution. This paper discusses why a semi-presidential system is not suited to Tunisia.

Noah Feldman, Professor of International Law, Harvard University

Noah Feldman is the Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard University as well as a Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows. He is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and the Bloomberg View as well as a Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. In 2003 he served as senior constitutional advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and subsequently advised members of the Iraqi Governing Council on the drafting of the Transitional Administrative Law or interim constitution. He served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court (1998 – 1999). He received his A.B. summa cum laude in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 1992, finishing first in his class. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a D. Phil. in Islamic Thought from Oxford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, serving as Book Reviews Editor  of the Yale Law Journal. He is the author of five books: the recent award winning and acclaimed Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Justices (Twelve, 2010). The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State (Princeton University Press, 2008); Divided by God: America’s Church- State Problem and What We Should Do About It (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005); What We Owe Iraq: War and Ethics of Nation Building (Princeton University Press, 2004); After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003).

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