The optimism that animated much of the discourse around the 2011 Arab uprisings has long faded. Over a decade later, researchers have turned their focus to why the upheavals have failed to bring an end to the conditions that sparked them, and, more hopefully, to what lessons can be drawn from them. To comparative constitutional scholars, questions of legality and constitutionalism are central to this story. They recognize that despite the particularities of the circumstances that led to each country’s uprisings and what futures they envisioned, all agreed on the necessity of constitutional reform. By now, however, it is clear that the promises and hopeful declarations found in the preambles and provisions of the new and amended constitutions remain unfulfilled. Rather, the circumstances that pushed people to the streets persist, have worsened even, leading to a fresh wave of protests across the region since 2018. Why has “the largest concentration of constitutional reform efforts in the world since the Cold War” not brought an end to socioeconomic inequality and authoritarian practices in the region (p. 1)?

Zaid Al-Ali’s Arab Constitutionalism: The Coming Revolution offers a thorough answer to this question. Importantly, Al-Ali does not merely describe a story of failure. His book is a hopeful one, premised on his belief that these outcomes were not inevitable, and that “there was a period in time in all of the countries that were impacted by the 2011 uprisings where everything was possible” (p. 3). He observes that, given the continued deterioration in socioeconomic conditions and the increase in political activity and the ambitions of people across the region, mass protests are likely to place in the future. Al-Ali’s book offers a broad comparative assessment of the region’s constitutional arrangements and their making during the post-2011 transitions, with a view to drawing lessons to be translated into progressive and inclusive constitutional principles, should another opportunity for revolutionary change arise.

The book is divided into two parts, preceded by a rich introduction that not only sets out the book’s objectives with impressive clarity, but that itself is a valuable guide and resource for researchers working on the region. Al-Ali’s careful explanation of his terminology choices (such as “Arab” and “uprisings”) displays the work’s rigor and nuance and attests to his investment in equality and justice across the region. Regarding methodology, Al-Ali explains that he is writing from his own experience as an observer and an international adviser in many of the post-2011 transition processes, which has given him access to spaces and resources that allow for such a detailed analysis. He also offers useful methodological guidance and links to online databases for researchers interested in the field who do not have that same access. His observations on the politics of digitization and documentation of sources and how these play out for Arabic materials offer valuable insights, especially at a time when conversations around decolonization dominate academic spaces but often ignore and conceal unequal power dynamics and material constraints. Al-Ali also warns that language barriers can lead to questionable results. He notes that much of the work produced on Arab politics is written by individuals who do not understand Arabic, which can perpetuate Orientalist and culturalist analyses of region. This is meant to encourage researchers to learn Arabic, which Al-Ali reassures us is not as difficult as it seems. The book’s introduction is a necessary reminder of the importance of questions of language and access to the politics of knowledge production.

The first part of the book, titled “The Uprising,” provides a detailed factual account of constitutional developments across the region since the precolonial period. Part 1 is divided into five chapters detailing constitutional developments in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, and Algeria, with the last four grouped into one chapter. Paragraphs are usefully labeled throughout the book, creating a slightly disrupted reading experience but reflecting the author’s intention that the book be accessible to readers with interest in a particular country or time period. Unlike comparative constitutional scholarship that focuses on legal text and the substance of constitutions, Al-Ali guides the reader through constitutional design procedures and reform processes and links this to constitutional outcomes at different historical junctures. Crucially, he emphasizes continuities in the constitutional frameworks that have pervaded the region since the colonial period and the impacts they have had on postcolonial governance. In doing so, he disrupts reductive and Orientalist analyses that construct legal cultures in the region as inherently repressive and different than those of the West.

The second part of the book, titled “Revolution,” is more deliberately analytical (although the first part includes important analytical insights as well). It is divided into thematic chapters that advance Al-Ali’s argument that real revolution is yet to be achieved. The chapters engage with the work of constitutional scholars such as Nathan Brown and Nimer Sultany to offer a nuanced take on questions about the purpose of constitutions, who they are for, and what progressive Arab constitutionalism should entail. Part 2 also is unique in its analysis of the roles and shortcomings international actors have had in shaping constitutional arrangements post 2011, whom he suggests should be subjected to accountability mechanisms to ensure they can effectively respond to the needs of countries in the region in the future. Ultimately, Al-Ali gives us his own vision of what a revolutionary constitutional rearrangement might look like in the region, one that would end the hyper-presidentialism and elite pacts that have dominated throughout the postcolonial period. Al-Ali rejects a universalist approach to constitutionalism without succumbing to cultural relativism. At the heart of his vision is an appeal for a reconceptualization of the relationship between the state and the individual in future constitutions. For Al-Ali, the people should be the normative source of constitutional design and substance. He asserts that the post-2011 constitutional arrangements in substance and design failed to center and incorporate the demands of the people. They focused instead on the organization of state power, rather than limiting it in any meaningful way. In so doing, they re-entrenched the same structures that the uprisings sought to dismantle.

Parts 1 and 2 together are a call to translate the expressed desires of protesters into constitutional principles that effectively represent and protect their rights and interests. This is a claim that places a major emphasis on, and hope in, the emancipatory potential of constitutionalism and of juridical rights. Would a better designed constitutional process have necessarily led to better outcomes? Can the law overcome structural political and economic issues that lead to major socioeconomic inequality in the region and were central to the uprisings? Al-Ali notes that even though some pre-2011 constitutions did incorporate socioeconomic rights, these were not realized for a variety of reasons, including the lack of judicial independence and the non-enforceable nature of some of the rights. However, given that the region’s political economy has been shaped by capitalist imperialism and is largely structured by global neoliberal economic policies that systemically disadvantage it, are better constitutions and legal institutions enough in the absence of a more equitable distribution of power and resources on a global scale? These questions are all the more necessary at a time when the region’s economic subjugation to capitalist interests leaves it particularly vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis and neoliberal responses to it. Without a restoration of economic sovereignty to the region and its people, it is unclear how even the strongest constitutions can address the material consequences of imperialist economic domination.

All in all, Arab Constitutionalism is unprecedented in its breadth and its detailed attention to constitutional design processes, which are regularly missing from comparative constitutional scholarship. The book is a valuable contribution grounded in an optimistic belief that the negative outcomes of the 2011 uprisings were not inevitable and can be prevented in the future. Al-Ali’s vision for a way forward highlighting constitutional negotiations that center the voices, needs, and prosperity of the individual is a hopeful one. Those invested in emancipatory futures for the region would do well to engage with the author’s observations and recommendations. The book should be required reading for researchers and other actors interested in constitutional law and theory in and beyond the region.