[Sigaba]

From a historiographical perspective, Ginsburg's comments provide food for thought. Long before contemporary political and legal debates over original meanings and intent, our forebearers struggled mightily--and not always successfully--with the contested meanings of the constitution. The proper division of power between the federal state and the individual states was but one such issue.

Thanks to the lack of power among other nations inhabiting North America, some of the bigger issues were deferred (and a few defused) by our expansion "from sea to shining sea." Thanks to our nation's relative geographic isolation, many of these issues were worked out (for worse and for better) without Americans needing to worry too badly about how the powers of the world might exploit the uncertainty to their advantage. Thanks to the built in limitations of military technology prior to the turn of to previous century, armed conflict over key constitutional issues was not as destructive as many combatants wished.

Do any of these factors presently apply to any African country looking to write a constitution that establishes a system of government centered around the rights of individuals and the rule of law?

Incidentally, the text of the RSA's constitution and its amendments are available here, its bill of rights is here, and a brief history of that document is available there. Here's an interesting excerpt from the latter link.

The Atlantic Charter, which Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill sign in 1941, lays the basis for a bill of rights in South Africa. In 1943 the ANC's first attempt at such a document, African Claims, is [modeled] on this charter[.]

For the sake of readers' convenience, here's a link to the Atlantic Charter <<LINK>>. From the charter's introductory paragraphs.

The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.

In short, long before the formal process of drafting the RSA's constitution began, it was already informed by the basic tenets of American political philosophy.