jurisdiction, drawing either upon the stronger model furnished by Germany's Constitutional Court or upon the variant suggested by France's Constitutional Council.8 The reasons for a pan-European influence are obvious. Central and Eastern Europe have particular reasons to wish to be seen, in constitutional terms, as peers of the countries of Western Europe. One incentive is economic. With the dissolution of patterns of trade and commerce enforced during the period of Soviet hegemony, countries in the former Communist bloc hope to attract trade and investment from richer counties like Germany. Indeed, the new democracies often hope to become members of the European Community. Adopting western-style constitutions, along with modern business and banking codes, is one mark of a country that invites foreign investors and businessmen to feel at home in Prague or Budapest. Economic motives are reinforced by the respect one finds among intellectuals in Central and Eastern Europe for the great legal traditions and academic institutions in the West. Just as a professor at a small American law school would hope to make his or her mark on the pages of a law review published at one of the nation's most prestigious law schools, so do professors in Sofia or Bucharest want to be thought of as the peers of faculties in Heidelberg or Tubingen. In general, European countries freed of Soviet domination yearn once again to be part of the "family of Europe." History, geography, economic aspirations, legal traditions, intellectual affinity -- all play their part in drawing Central and Eastern Europe's constitutional drafters to think in European terms. Thinking about Rights in Central and Eastern Europe Bill of rights being drafted in Central and Eastern Europe reflect many of the patterns of modern constitutionalism. Every draft contains, in one form or another, assurances of free speech, freedom of conscience, and the right to form political parties. Similarly one will inevitably find some version of the anti-discrimination principle -- bans on discrimination on the basis of nationality, ethnicity, religion, or other specified grounds. As to criminal justice, every bill of rights contains procedural protections for those accused of crime. The symmetry of the new bills of rights reflects in good part the influence of international norms as found in such documents as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. The transition from authoritarian to democratic government in Central and Eastern Europe requires thinking about the nature of rights. What kinds of rights ought to be given constitutional status, what should the scope of those rights be, and how can they be made effective? Of special interest is the way in which constitution-makers approach two kinds of rights, negative rights and affirmative rights. Negative rights. The more traditional human rights, such as freedom of expression, declare limits on government power -- what government may not do. In this respect, the new bills of rights often give with one hand and take back with the other. Free speech, for example, enjoys only qualified protection. The typical bill of rights in the region declares a person's right to speak freely but goes on to carve out significant exceptions. It is common for advocacy of "fascism" or "communism" to be excepted from the constitution's protection, or for bans on speech to be allowed where speech conflicts with "public morality" or with the "constitutional order." Such exceptions can swallow up the rule, especially when, as always seems the case, the bill of rights does not require some finding of "clear and present danger" or a like standard before a restriction on speech can be justified. Romania's Constitution, adopted in 1991, declares the "freedom to express ideas, opinions, and beliefs" to be "inviolable." But the Constitution goes on to add that the law may prohibit "defamation of the country and the nation; provocation to war or aggression; and to ethnic, racial, class, or religious CSCE ODIHR BULLETIN Vol. 2, No. 1 6