Constitution Day, 28 June 2010

Ukraine marks the anniversary of its constitution today.

I will keep this short, and deliberately so. How the constitution should be read, what should be changed in it and who has the better of the argument are questions for Ukrainian citizens. They are not mine to answer, and a guest who starts answering them has misunderstood his position.

What I will say is the thing anyone can say. A written constitution is a promise a country makes to itself about how disputes will be settled — that they will be settled by rules agreed in advance rather than by whoever is strongest at the time. Keeping that promise is difficult everywhere and nowhere automatic.

A good Constitution Day to everyone marking it.