Constitution





The Constitution of a given organisation defines its form, structure,
activities, character, and fundamental rules.

The term comes from Latin constitutio, which referred to any important law,
usually issued by the emperor, and was widely used in canon law to indicate
certain relevant decisions, mainly of the pope.

Particular kinds of organisations that often use the concept of Constitution
include:

   * Governmental bodies (transnational, national or regional)
   * Voluntary organisations
   * Trade unions
   * Political parties

An organisation may be given specific powers on the condition that it abides
by this constitution or charter limitation. The Latin term ultra vires
describes activities that fall outside an organisation's or parliamentary
body's constitutional activities. For example, a student union may be
prohibited from engaging in activities not concerning students as students,
if the student union becomes involved in nonstudent activities these
activities are considered ultra vires of the student union's charter, or a
bank that tries to act as a real estate agent. An example from the
constitutional law of nation-states would be a provincial government in a
federal state which may not have authority over banking under the federal
constitution, so any laws the provincial parliaments pass regarding banking
will be considered void or ultra vires of that parliament's constitutional authority.

State constitutions

Most commonly, the term "constitution" is used to refer to the set of rules
that govern political bodies in nation-states. These rules may or may not be
summarized in a single document.

   * Possibly the most common usage of 'constitution' is to describe a
     single, written, fundamental law that defines how a state is governed,
     legislation is passed, power and authority are distributed, and how
     they are limited. It is thus the most basic law of a country from which
     all the other laws and rules are hierarchically derived; in some
     countries it is in fact called "Basic Law".

     Having a single written document gives the advantage of a coherent and
     easily understood body of rules. In democratic systems, the
     constitution is considered a fundamental social contract among citizens
     (following Rousseau's writings), where government receives its powers
     from the people, not the monarch or a parliament, and is bound by an
     express set of human rights. The constitution is thus considered a
     statute superior to "ordinary" statutes, which it can overrule, and is
     usually protected against constitutional amendments and by special
     courts (see below). This is considered the model followed by the United
     States, whose constitution is the oldest such document still in effect
     today.

   * By contrast, in the Westminster tradition which originated in England,
     unwritten constitutional conventions, precedents, royal prerogatives
     and custom collectively constituted the British constitutional law. In
     the days of the British Empire the Judicial Committee of the Privy
     Council acted as the constitutional court for many of the british
     colonies such as Canada and Australia which had federal constitutions.

     In these systems, the difference between a constitution and a statute
     is somewhat arbitrary, usually depending on the traditional devotion of
     popular opinion to historical principles embodied in important past
     legislation. For example, several Acts of Parliament such as the Bill
     of Rights, Human Rights Act and, prior to the creation of Parliament,
     the Magna Carta are regarded as granting fundamental rights and
     principles which are treated as almost constitutional. However, these
     are in law no different to any other Act of Parliament and can be
     changed just as easily.

Constitutional courts

The constitution, of whatever form, is often protected by a certain legal
body in each country with various names, such as supreme, constitutional or
high court. This court judges the validity of legislation, its
interpretation, and the manner in which such legislation is implemented by
the executive branch of the state.

Such legal bodies are normally the court of last resort, the highest such
body without further recourse, where this process of judicial review are
integrated into the system of courts of appeals. This is the case, for
example, with the Supreme Court of the United States. Other countries
dedicate a special court solely to the protection of the constitution, as
with the German Constitutional Court.

Finally, some countries have no such courts at all – for example, as
the United Kingdom traditionally functions under the principle of
parliamentary supremacy, the legislature has the power to enact any law it
wishes. However, by membership of the U.K. in the European Union it is now
subject to accepting the jurisdiction of European Community law and European
courts such as the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human
Rights; in effect, these bodies are thus constitutional courts that can
invalidate or interpret British legislation.