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33 Utrecht J. Int'l & Eur. L. 4 (2017)
A Legal Perspective on Yemen's Attempted Transition from a Unitary to a Federal System of Government

handle is hein.journals/merko33 and id is 4 raw text is: UTRECHT JOURNAL OF Paul Williams, Tiffany Sommadossi and Ayat Mujais, 'A Legal Perspective INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN LAW on Yemen's Attempted Transition from a Unitary to a Federal System of Government' (2017) 33(84) Utrecht Journal of International and European Law pp. 4-22, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ujiel.366 RESEARCH ARTICLE A Legal Perspective on Yemen's Attempted Transition from a Unitary to a Federal System of Government Paul Williams*, Tiffany Sommadossit and Ayat Mujais* Yemen's 2013-2014 National Dialogue Conference paved the way for Yemen to transition from a unitary to federal system of government. This is a common trajectory for States emerging from conflict as federalism offers the hope for greater democratic governance and inclusivity. Nevertheless, there is a danger in assuming that there is an ideal federal model to emulate or that federalism is itself a guaranteed remedy for political dysfunction and authoritarianism. Transitioning to federalism is an arduous, expensive, and technically complicated process. Such transitions can also renew conflict if, prior to the drafting of the federal constitution, key issues related to the design of the new system are not addressed or there is a lack of consensus on how to address those issues. Indeed, this was the case in Yemen. Prior to drafting its new federal constitution, Yemen struggled to reach sufficient political consensus on three key issues: (1) the formation of federal regions; (2) the structure of the new federal system; and (3) how powers were to be distributed in the State, including over natural resources management. This lack of consensus during the National Dialogue Conference resulted in the Constitution Drafting Committee having the responsibility of making highly controversial political decisions about Yemen's future as a federal State. This article examines how Yemen's transition to federalism was undermined by the inability to reach sufficient consensus on three key transition issues prior to the drafting of the 2015 federal constitution. Keywords: Federalism; Unitary; Yemen; Post-conflict; Political transition; Decentralisation; National Dialogue Conference; Constitution-drafting; Arab Spring I. Introduction In 2011, Yemen joined in the wave of Arab Spring revolutions sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa. Mounting resistance to the regime of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh resulted in a negotiated political settlement brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with the support of the European Union and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. In November 2011, the National Coalition (the General People's Congress' and its allies) and the National Council (the Joint Meeting Parties2 and their partners) signed the Gulf Cooperation Initiative and the Implementation Mechanism (together the Gulf Initiative).' The Gulf Initiative signalled the beginning of Yemen's transition period, but Co-founder and President, Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG, headquartered in US); Rebecca Grazier Professor of Law and International Relations, American University, Washington, DC, US. t Legal Consultant, PILPG (headquartered in US). Research Associate, PILPG (headquartered in US). I The General People's Congress is the ruling party in Yemen, which under Saleh had privileged access to State resources. Its members are not united by ideology, but represent a broad array of interest. 'Islamists, former socialists, merchants, tribal leaders, moderates, hard-line religious conservatives and some genuinely progressive reformers all exist side by side under the GPC umbrella'. Sarah Phillips, Yemen and the Politics of Permanent Crisis (IlSS 2011) 116-117. 2 ibid 105. The Joint Meeting Parties is an alliance of six opposition parties to the GPC. Its largest members come from the Islamist Islah Party and the Yemeni Socialist Party. Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative (UN Translation) (2011) <https://osesgy unmissions.org/sites/default/files/gcc_initiative yemen-english.pdf> accessed 2 March 2017; Agreement on the Implementation Mechanism for the Transition Process in Yemen in Accordance with the Initiative of the Gulf Cooperation Council (UN Translation) (2011) <http://peacemaker.un.org/yemen- transition-mechanism2011> accessed 2 March 2017, see part I para 3(c).

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