{"id":673,"date":"2020-01-09T20:48:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T20:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-cornell-law-review.pantheonsite.io\/?p=673"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:16:09","slug":"conditionality-and-constitutional-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/2020\/01\/09\/conditionality-and-constitutional-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Conditionality and Constitutional Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The burgeoning field of Critical Romani Studies explores the persistent subjugation of Europe\u2019s largest minority: the Roma. Within this field, it has become fashionable to draw parallels to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.<sup class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1<\/sup><\/a><cite class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><span class=\"footnote-inner\">1. See generally&nbsp;James A. Goldston,&nbsp;The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Opportunity in the United States and Europe: From&nbsp;Brown v. Board&nbsp;to&nbsp;D.H.&nbsp;and&nbsp;&#x2026; <span class=\"footnote_tooltip_continue\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_1');\">Continue reading<\/span><\/span><\/cite><\/sup><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_673_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script>  Yet the comparisons are often one-sided; lessons tend to flow from Civil Rights to Roma Rights more than the other way around. It is an all-too-common hagiography of Civil Rights, where our history becomes a blueprint for other movements for racial equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To correct this trend, this Essay reveals what American scholars can learn from Roma Rights. Specifically, this Essay argues that the European Union\u2019s Roma integration policies illuminate a relatively unexplored dynamic of America\u2019s post-Civil War Reconstruction: the influence of the Reconstruction Act of 1867 upon the Fifteenth Amendment. The Reconstruction Act imposed conditions upon the readmission of former Confederate states that were out of step with laws governing incumbent states within the Union. Most prominently, Southern states had to uphold the suffrage rights of freedmen, even though Northern states denied African Americans the vote at almost every opportunity. Similarly, when the European Union (EU) expanded into post-Communist Eastern Europe, the Union required that accession candidates adopt minority protections that were stricter than the obligations of incumbent members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This Essay begins by framing the readmission of ex-Confederate states as&nbsp;<em>conditionality<\/em>, the process of negotiation over conditions for membership. Conditionality is closely associated with the eastern enlargement of the EU, another federal system that demanded more of candidates than of members. At times, the conditions for readmission and accession elevated the racial equality standards for all states. The United States appeared to pass the Fifteenth Amendment, for example, which guarantees the vote to all male citizens, to put to rest the uneven imposition of suffrage.<sup class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2<\/sup><\/a><cite class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><span class=\"footnote-inner\">2. <em>See&nbsp;<\/em>ALEXANDER&nbsp;KEYSSAR, THE&nbsp;RIGHT TO&nbsp;VOTE: THE&nbsp;CONTESTED&nbsp;HISTORY OF&nbsp;DEMOCRACY IN THE&nbsp;UNITED&nbsp;STATES&nbsp;74\u201375 (2000).<\/span><\/cite><\/sup><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_673_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script>  Similarly, the EU incorporated&nbsp;\u201crespect for minorities\u201d&nbsp;into its constitutional order in response to charges of hypocrisy. The conditionality framework therefore shows how the internal and external competences of a federal government can influence one another, illuminating whether bold demands upon candidates can lift up the standards for all member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Reconstruction failed so spectacularly that a&nbsp;\u201cSecond Reconstruction,\u201d&nbsp;as the Civil Rights Movement is sometimes known, was needed to give full effect to the meaning of freedom. This Essay concludes by showing how the incongruence between readmission conditions and the constitutional framework undermined the Reconstruction Amendments. While some scholars have explored the influence of the Northwest Ordinance on the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments,<sup class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">3<\/sup><\/a><cite class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><span class=\"footnote-inner\">3. E.g., Eric Biber,&nbsp;The Price of Admission: Causes, Effects, and Patterns of Conditions Imposed on States Entering the Union, 46 AM. J. LEGAL&nbsp;HIST. 119, 132\u2013&nbsp;35 (2004); George&nbsp;&#x2026; <span class=\"footnote_tooltip_continue\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_3');\">Continue reading<\/span><\/span><\/cite><\/sup><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_673_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script>&nbsp;none have ever cast this relationship between the U.S. federal government\u2019s internal and external governance as&nbsp;<em>conditionality<\/em>, that concept which has come to embody the challenge of sustaining reforms once an applicant becomes a full-fledged member.<sup class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_4');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_4');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_4\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">4<\/sup><\/a><cite class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><span class=\"footnote-inner\">4. Professor Ackerman has noted the dearth of legal scholarship on the effect of the Reconstruction Act upon the Fourteenth Amendment, though he has not analyzed this dynamic as the influence of&nbsp;&#x2026; <span class=\"footnote_tooltip_continue\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_673_1('footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_4');\">Continue reading<\/span><\/span><\/cite><\/sup><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_673_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To read more, click here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawschool.cornell.edu\/research\/cornell-law-review\/Cornell-Law-Review-Online\/upload\/Chang-essay-final-version.pdf\">Conditionality and Constitutional Change<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_673_1();\">References<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_673_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_673_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_673_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_673_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"><em>See generally&nbsp;<\/em>James A. Goldston,&nbsp;<em>The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Opportunity in the United States and Europe: From&nbsp;<\/em>Brown v. Board&nbsp;<em>to&nbsp;<\/em>D.H.&nbsp;<em>and Beyond<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>in&nbsp;<\/em>REALIZING&nbsp;ROMA&nbsp;RIGHTS&nbsp;163\u201384 (Jacqueline Bhabha et al. eds., 2017) (comparing the fight for equal justice for Roma children with the civil rights movement in the United States).<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_673_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"><em>See&nbsp;<\/em>ALEXANDER&nbsp;KEYSSAR, THE&nbsp;RIGHT TO&nbsp;VOTE: THE&nbsp;CONTESTED&nbsp;HISTORY OF&nbsp;DEMOCRACY IN THE&nbsp;UNITED&nbsp;STATES&nbsp;74\u201375 (2000).<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_673_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"><em>E.g.<\/em>, Eric Biber,&nbsp;<em>The Price of Admission: Causes, Effects, and Patterns of Conditions Imposed on States Entering the Union<\/em>, 46 AM. J. LEGAL&nbsp;HIST. 119, 132\u2013&nbsp;35 (2004); George Rutherglen,&nbsp;<em>State Action, Private Action, and the Thirteenth Amendment<\/em>, 94 VA. L. REV. 1367, 1372 (2008).<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_673_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_673_1_4');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_673_1_4\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>4<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Professor Ackerman has noted the dearth of legal scholarship on the effect of the Reconstruction Act upon the Fourteenth Amendment, though he has not analyzed this dynamic as the influence of external conditions on internal governance.&nbsp;<em>See&nbsp;<\/em>BRUCE&nbsp;ACKERMAN, 2 WE THE&nbsp;PEOPLE: TRANSFORMATIONS&nbsp;190 (1998).<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_673_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_673_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_673_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_673_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_673_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_673_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_673_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_673_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_673_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_673_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_673_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_673_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_673_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_673_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The burgeoning field of Critical Romani Studies explores the persistent subjugation of Europe\u2019s largest minority: the Roma. Within this field, it has become fashionable to draw parallels to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.11. See generally&nbsp;James A. Goldston,&nbsp;The Unfulfilled Promise of Educational Opportunity in the United States and Europe: From&nbsp;Brown v. Board&nbsp;to&nbsp;D.H.&nbsp;and&nbsp;&#x2026; Continue reading Yet the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,13],"tags":[188,202,235,295,297,298,393,468,516,555,582,583],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online-volume-105","category-archives","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-confederate-states","tag-critical-romani-studies","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-integration-policy","tag-minorities","tag-post-communist-eastern-europe","tag-reconstruction","tag-roma","tag-roma-rights"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4654,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions\/4654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/lawreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}