Département de science politique
Faculté des sciences sociales

Accueil - Veil of Ignorance Project

The Veil of Ignorance Project (VOIP) addresses the issue of the impact of uncertainty in constitutional design. To what extent do constitution drafters and adopters make their decisions «behind a veil of ignorance»? More fundamentally, can we infer from constitutional texts the degree of uncertainty faced by constitution drafters and adopters?

The project explored three research territories:

  1. Comparing the constitutions of 16 countries through a coder-based content analysis. 
  2. Analysing Canada's constitutional evolution through a coder-based content analysis. 
  3. Analysing the constitutions of 150 countries through a dictionary-based content analysis. 

Main investigator: Louis M. Imbeau
Co-Investigators: Jean Crête, Steve Jacob
Collaborators: Cristine de Clercy, Roger Congleton, Thomas Éboutou, Emma Galli, Veronica Grembi, Karin Ingold, Ringa Raudla, Christine Rothmayr, Nathalie Schiffino, Agnes Strauss, George Tridimas, Frédéric Varone, Stefan Voigt