Why the Constitution needs reorganising
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Member of the Riigikogu, Estonian Reform Party
With all due respect to the authors of the Estonian Constitution who once wrote it, the author of this article considers this Act a positively dilettantish and outdated text which requires revision and reorganisation with a fresh eye.
The phrase “reorganisation” has been selected knowingly here because Estonia does not need a new constitutional order in a broad sense. If we needed a new political and constitutional organisation, a new Constitution should be adopted. Actually, the existing basic scheme of statehood of Estonia, that is, the parliamentary republic, has justified itself well in time. Estonia has achieved development success and the statehood has been stable. At the same time, the political and legal integration of the state into the international life, including the accession to the European Union, has fundamentally changed our legal status. However, if we ask how much the text of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia reflects this situation then the answer is: not at all. In summary, the author reaches the conclusion that if Estonia sticks to its current Constitution for longer, then the constitutional patterns fixed in it will be ingrained and petrified even deeper and it will be even more difficult to change them or give them a new content later. Moreover, reorganisation of the Constitution together with the accompanying discussions and disputes would give an important reason and impetus to reflect on the present and future of Estonia so that it will be better, more secure and make people happier.