Since the release of the last previous volume of Las Constituciones Hispanoamericanas, Las constituciones de El Salvador, the general editor has received a political appointment of importance. Manuel Fraga Iribarne has recently been named Minister of Information and Tourism in Franco’s Spain. That his selection has reduced censorship is already reported. Meanwhile, it is to be hoped that the series is not ended by this venture into polities.
No precise pattern of organization seems to be required of every volume of this series; the emphasis in the book at hand is simply on compilation. Luis Mariñas Otero (who also did the Guatemalan volume) has devoted relatively much less space to history and constitutional development than have the editors of the companion studies. He does an admirable, if very brief, job of introducing each constitution by showing how it differed from its predecessor. He properly omits the federal constitutions of 1898 and 1921 that were never operative, as well as the Central American constitution of 1824. Included, however, is the project of 1831, which Stokes says did not go into effect because of the chaos of the time.
New constitutions are promulgated in Honduras every eleven years on the average. They have gradually grown longer; the present version (1957) is some four times the size of the 19th century counterparts. The reason for the trend is significant. The number of titles, or general sections, has not greatly changed, but the amount of detail describing and defining functions and responsibilities has been vastly extended. A curious example is the four pages of obligations listed for the armed forces.
As is true of the entire series, Las constituciones de Honduras is more handy than profound. On occasion it can be indispensable.
