Constitution

From Encyclopediak

Constitution, the fundamental law of a country, state or other organized body, but the term ordinarily applies to the organic law of a state or nation. Constitutions may be written, as that of the United States, or unwritten, as that of Great Britain. According to their origin, constitutions are of three classes 1 those framed and adopted by a sovereign people, as the Constitution of the United States, and those of the several states of the Union 2 those formed by contracts between a nation and an individual whom the nation accepts as a sovereign, as the constitutions of most limited monarchies 3 those which are contracts between different sovereign powers, which agree to combine to form a central government, as in the formation of the German Empire. The constitutions of the United Provinces of Holland and of the Swiss Confederation also belong to this class. The constitution of Great Britain is the best illustration of an ordinary or flexible constitution. It is derived from the following sources a. Magna Charta, of 1215 b. the Declaration of Rights, 1689 c. the Act of Settlement, 1701 d. the Union with Scotland, 1707 e. the Union with Ireland, 1800 f. a large number of acts of Parliament g. a body of precedents and customs, known as common law and h. usages and practices known as customs of the constitution. These various parts of the constitution are nowhere brought together in one body, and the constitution may be modified by act of Parliament or judicial decision. The constitutions of the British colonies are based on that of the Mother Country. See AUSTRALIA, COMMONWEALTH OF, subhead Constitution CANADA SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF.

Constitutions like those of the United States are known as extraordinary, or inflexible, because they cannot be modified except in accordance with provisions which the Constitution contains to illustrate, from 1803, when an amendment changing the method of electing presi dent and vice-president was adopted, there were no amendments to the Constitution of the United States until 1865, when the issues of the Civil War made further amendments necessary. From 1865 until 1912 no amendments were presented to the states. In that year Congress passed and referred to the states for adoption an amendment providing for the election of United States senators by a direct vote of the people, and one providing for the legalizing of an income-tax law. See CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT LAW MAGNA CHARTA.

Constitutional Union Party. See POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES, subhead Constitutional Union Party.