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Topic

Happiness Theory of Constitutionalism: A Contextual Analysis of the Nature of Bhutan’s Constitution

Faculty of Law

Date & location

• Saturday, February 22, 2025
• 7:30 A.M.
• Virtual Defence

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Prof. Victor Ramraj, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)
• Prof. Donna Greschner, Faculty of Law, UVic (Co-Supervisor)
• Dr. Jamie Lawson, Department of Political Science, UVic (Outside Member)

External Examiner

• Dr. Mara Malagodi, School of Law, University of Warwick

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Angie Chau, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, UVic

Abstract

Some scholars and researchers are advocating for adoption of happiness as the goal of government policies, particularly as an alternative to liberal and neoliberal policies. They claim that some features of liberal and neoliberal policies are leading to the disembodiment of individuals from society and nature, resulting in a global environmental crisis and a decline in social virtues. There is a need to adopt a political dimension–a constitutional culture based on the alternative worldview of interdependence of nature, society, and the individual.

Bhutan has taken a distinct path with the adoption of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) policy as an alternative to pure economic development from the early 1970s, and possibly even as early as the 17^th century. In 2008, Bhutan adopted the written Constitution without any changes to GNH policy. Exploring this continuity, this dissertation examines Bhutan's constitutional culture contextually in relation to the role played by happiness in shaping Bhutan’s social and political dimension. It considers whether happiness as a goal of government policies can be a good alternative.

The dissertation adopts a contextual approach to research. It analyses Bhutanese constitutional culture from both internal and external contexts. External contextuality is an analysis of constitutional culture from the outside of law by examining social, cultural, and political forces, while internal contextuality is an analysis from the inside of law by examining whether constitutional texts reflect the cultural constitutional principles.

The analysis of social, cultural, and political forces shows that happiness played a significant role in developing and ordering of Bhutan's polity in the past, and it still is one of the core principles of Bhutan's constitutional culture. GNH policy is grounded on the Buddhist view of happiness (a concept that is not necessarily at loggerhead with other concepts of happiness), and GNH is a founding principle of the written Constitution. In all three periods (pre-monarchy, monarchy, and post-monarchy period), though there were some structural changes, happiness endured as the value of Bhutanese constitutional culture. Drawing on Bhutan’s unique historical context, this dissertation proposes a theory of constitutionalism founded on the constitutional value of happiness. It provides an alternative vision of constitutionalism, and the social, political, and legal foundation for furthering the happiness of the people.

The dissertation concludes by examining the practical implications of the proposed theory of constitutionalism. In particular, one of the significant implications discussed is the regulation of government powers from the perspective of happiness constitutionalism.