Whether or not you buy into the idea of American exceptionalism, the U.S. constitution is an exceptional document: the way in which it was crafted, how it secured the rights of citizens, and how 94 percent of nations have modeled their own charters after it. But if you ask Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the constitution is exactly that: historically exceptional, but now a tad out of date. In a recent interview in Egypt, she stated: “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.”
In line with her comments, a new study has found that fewer and fewer nations are modeling their constitutions after ours. Here to explain the trend are Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, and Carne Ross, author of “The Leaderless Revolution.”