Solomon Islands 1978
The first constitution of the Solomon Islands came into force on July 7, 1978, when the country achieved independence from the United Kingdom. The Solomon Islands colony received internal self-government on January 2, 1976 after negotiations in London between the British government and a delegation from the Solomons Assembly in May 1975. These interim arrangements remained in force until independence in 1978.
Development of the independence constitution began on August 27, 1975 when the Solomons Assembly appointed a 23-member Constitutional Committee. Its members included 13 assembly members, eight representatives from local governments, a merchant and a religious leader. This committee held hearings around the islands and produced a report with constitutional recommendations in March 1976. The assembly took note of these recommendations but did not approve them.
After elections for an enlarged 38-member assembly in June 1976, the legislature returned to the constitutional proposals. The new assembly divided into government, independent, and opposition caucuses. The government requested an advisor from the Commonwealth secretariat to assist in the development of the constitution. This advisor, Yash Ghai, arrived in March 1977. Rather than debate in formal legislative sessions, members of the assembly met with Ghai privately, first in their caucuses and later as a group. After less than a month of discussions, the three groups in the legislature reached an agreement on a position paper of constitutional principles, based on the earlier committee report, to take into independence negotiations with the British. The assembly unanimously approved these proposals at a formal session.
As was common practice in British decolonization processes, a constitutional conference for the Solomons was held in London from September 6 to 16, 1977. The British delegation had 10 members, while the 26 government and independent members of the assembly attended for the Solomons. The opposition members of the assembly chose to boycott the conference (as a protest against the British, not the Solomons government). The conference met in private and considered the constitutional provisions section by section. Provisions on citizenship caused the most debate. After the conference concluded, British legal experts drafted the statutory language that became the actual text of the constitution.
The completed text of the constitution was tabled in the Solomons Assembly, but the legislature did not debate or vote on the text. The British government decreed the constitution as a schedule to the Solomon Islands Independence Order, which was laid before the British parliament on June 8, 1978.