A Constitution for the Federation of Earth (Session 1)

War, nuclear weapons, poverty and a damaged climate cross every border, yet each is handled by governments that answer only to their own citizens. The World Citizen Book Club opened its reading of the Earth Constitution, one detailed answer to that gap, in the first of five sessions.

About the Book

A Constitution for the Federation of Earth: With Historical Introduction, Commentary and Conclusion presents the Earth Constitution drafted and ratified by the World Constituent Assemblies between 1968 and 1991, with Glen T. Martin’s commentary on its design: a World Parliament, a world judiciary, enforceable world law and the protection of human rights and the planet’s ecology. The World Citizen Book Club read the Constitution over five monthly sessions in 2021.

About the Author

Glen T. Martin is a professor of philosophy at Radford University and president of the World Constitution and Parliament Association, which has promoted the Earth Constitution since the 1970s. He has written widely on world federation, democratic world law and the philosophy of global citizenship.

Discussion Highlights

Executive Director Bob Flax moderated while Glen T. Martin was delayed. Flax opened with a map of four routes toward a federal world order: transforming the United Nations, integrating the regions, uniting the democracies, and writing a constitution first and then seeking its ratification. Of the many constitutions drafted for the Earth, he noted, the World Constitution and Parliament Association is the only group that has tried to take one to nations and peoples for ratification.

Members pressed on the map. Several argued that a constituency of world citizens must come before institutions, and asked whether that is a fifth route. Others raised the internet and digital tools as ways to organize across borders, the part religion and ethics play in motivating people, and the difference between sovereignty and absolute sovereignty. One member asked how CGS’s own approach, building political will inside existing governments, relates to the Constitution.

Martin joined for the last few minutes. He described the history behind the text and offered to take questions at later sessions. The next session was set to cover Articles 1 through 9.