Between March 2009 and January 2010 the Revising National Assembly debated, voted and proclaimed a new Constitution for the Dominican Republic. Josué Fiallo accompanied that process as an adviser, from three different tables.
59meetings of the Assembly
7,543pages of records
1,254votes documented
277articles in the proclaimed text
Law 70-09, of February 27, 2009, declared the need to reform the Constitution and summoned senators and deputies to sit as the Revising National Assembly. Ten months of work followed: fifty-nine meetings, alternating between the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, two full readings of the text, article by article, and a proclamation, on January 26, 2010, with the national anthem and a twenty-one gun salute.
Josué Fiallo, a lawyer, served in that process as adviser to the Justice Committee, to the Verification and Audit Committee and to the Presidency of the National Assembly. Three roles and a single craft: making sure that every word approved on the floor was the same word written into the Constitution.
Three roles
Adviser
Justice Committee
The Special Committee on Title V, “The Judiciary”, studied items 44 to 49 of the convening law, articles 126 to 162 of the proposal and its transitional provisions. It was coordinated by Senator Francisco Domínguez Brito, with Deputy Víctor Suárez Díaz as acting coordinator.
It heard the Supreme Court of Justice, the Office of the Attorney General, the Public Defender’s Office and civil society organizations, and weighed twenty-six amendments tabled by members of the Assembly. Its favorable report with modifications, dated July 29, 2009, proposed the Council of the Judiciary, the Superior Council of the Public Prosecution Service and a career service for prosecutors.
Adviser
Verification and Audit Committee
A standing committee created by the Rules of the Assembly and chaired by Assembly member Francisco Rosario Martínez. Its mandate: to check the text approved on first reading against the records, the orders of the day, the votes and the recordings of each meeting, and to point out errors, gaps and contradictions.
Its report, 191 pages long with a proposed text of 88, included thirty reconsiderations and opened the second reading on September 17, 2009. Together with the Style Committee it later reviewed the text approved on second reading, in the report the plenary took up on November 16, 2009.
Adviser
Presidency of the National Assembly
The Revising National Assembly was presided over by Reinaldo Pared Pérez, President of the Senate, with Julio César Valentín Jiminián, President of the Chamber of Deputies, as Vice President.
The Presidency conducted the fifty-nine meetings, set the procedure for each reading with the Coordinating Committee and carried the text through to its proclamation.
Law 70-09 declares the need for the reform and convenes the Revising National Assembly.
First meeting of the Assembly. The first reading begins.
The Special Committee on Title V delivers its report on the Judiciary.
Meeting number 40, the last of the first reading.
The Verification and Audit Committee presents its report. The second reading begins.
Meeting number 57, the last of the second reading.
The plenary takes up the report reviewing the text approved on second reading.
Proclamation of the reformed Constitution.
The fifty-nine meetings
Each meeting left a verbatim record. The list below comes from those records: date, number, type of meeting, venue where stated, and length of the record. Each meeting opens its own page, with the full record and its votes.
Extraordinary meeting · 261-page record · 3 votes · Proclamation
Sources: records of the National Assembly convened under Law 70-09; report of the Special Committee on Title V, July 29, 2009; report of the Standing Committee on Verification and Audit, September 2009. Photograph: meeting of the Revising National Assembly, October 22, 2009.
