CONSTITUTION Prepared by: Ma. Elena K. Parayno Meaning of constitution
Itrefers to the body of rules
according to which the powers of sovereignty are exercised. Importance, nature and purpose of function of constitution The people exercise control of their government primarily through the Constitution which protects from unjust exercise of governmental power and through periodic elections by means of which they choose the officers to represent them. A constitution is the supreme or fundamental law creating the government, having been enacted by the people themselves. The purpose of the constitution is to draw the framework or general outline of the system of the government and to specify the respective powers and functions of the various branches of government comprising this framework. Constitution distinguished from statute A Constitution is a law given directly by the people, while a statute is a law enacted by the people’s representative A constitution is the fundamental law of the state on which all other laws or statute are based Basic principles underlying our constitution Recognition of the Almighty God’ Sovereignty of the people Supremacy of civilian authority over the military Separation of Church and State Guarantee of human rights Government through suffrage Separation of powers Independence of the judiciary Rule of the majority Government of laws and not of men Meaning of Constitutional Law Itmay be defined as that branch of public law which treats of constitutions, their nature, formation, amendments, and interpretation. Kinds of Constitution as to their origin and history conventional or enacted-one which is enacted by a constituent assembly or granted by a monarch to his subjects cumulative or evolved-one which is the product of growth or a long period of development originating in customs, traditions, judicial decisions rather than from deliberate and formal enactment as to their form written-one which has been given definite written form at a particular time, usually by a specially constituted authority called constitutional convention unwritten-one which is entirely the product of political evolution, consisting largely of a mass of customs, usages and judicial decisions together with a smaller body of statutory enactments of a fundamental character, usually bearing different dates as to manner of amending them rigid or inelastic-one regarded as a document of a special sanctity which cannot be amended or altered except by some special machinery more cumbrous than the ordinary legislative process flexible or elastic-one which possess no higher legal authority than ordinary laws and which may be altered in the same way as other laws Requisites of a good written constitution as to form brief broad definite as to contents constitution of government constitution of liberty constitution of sovereignty