The previous chapter detailed how almost every state in the Asia–Pacific region was subject to colonisation by a European power. In the second half of the twentieth century the vast majority of these colonies engaged in constitutional dialogue, most anticipating nothing less than joining the community of nations as sovereign, independent states. For others, the dialogue led to an act of self-determination which offered the people a choice of constitutional alternatives, from sovereign independence to forms of association within an existing political and constitutional order.

Following independence (or, in other places, during negotiations toward self-determination), laws - determining citizenship, land ownership, chiefly status and representation in the state, the structure of government, political organisation, electoral representation, freedom of speech, religion, custom, and human rights - were drafted to please departing European powers and were agreed to by signatories prepared to assent to most constitutional provisions in order to facilitate the speedy demise of colonial rule.