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1 Hofstra L. & Pol'y Symp. 1 (1996)
Are State Constitutional Conventions Things of the Past-The Increasing Role of the Constitutional Commission in State Constitutional Change

handle is hein.journals/hlps1 and id is 7 raw text is: ARE STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS THINGS OF THE PAST? THE INCREASING ROLE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION IN STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE* ROBERT F WILLIAMS** Increasing use of the constitutional commission as an auxiliary device for initiating both major and minor changes is one of the most significant developments in the procedure of modernizing state constitutions. Constitutional commissions were developed initially, and have been used primarily, as auxiliary staff arms of state legislative assemblies. Their principal function has been to provide expert advice on constitutional problems and issues and to propose and draft amendments, revisions, and even entire constitutions. The 1968 Florida Constitution was the first state organic law to accord constitutional status to the commission as a formal method of proposing constitutional change. Albert L. Sturm' Interestingly, the research leading to this article grew out of work * This is an expanded version of The Role of the Constitutional Commission in State Constitutional Change, published as CHAPTER 6 in THE NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION: A BRIEFING BOOK (Temporary State Commission on Constitutional Revision, Gerald Benjamin, ed., 1994) and is reprinted here with permission. I would like to thank the Commission Research Director Gerald Benjamin, and Commission Counsel Professor Eric Lane, for the opportunity to participate in the Commission's work, and to thank Gerald Benjamin for his helpful comments on the draft chapter, as well as this expanded version. I would also like to thank Janice C. May, John Kincaid, and Alan Tar for their helpful comments and ideas. ** Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers University School of Law, Camden. Author of STATE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (2d Ed. 1993). I would like to thank Lee D. Sinins, Class of 1996, for invaluable research assistance. 1. Albert L. Sturm, The Procedure of State Constitutional Change - With Special Emphasis on the South and Florida, 5 FLA. ST. U.L. REv. 569, 585 (1977).

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