Constitutional Law

• Constitutional Law

  Concerns the institutionalisation of limited, Rule of Law government, and its distinctive contribution consisting of three rules about the making of rules of law:

  1. To express, formally or by implication, the fundamental values and principles of political community.
  2. To allocate political power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the state and in federal states to allocate power among the different levels of government.
  3. To impose limits on the power of the state in all its forms.
• What is the reason of constitutional rules given by the making of rules of law?

  (1) The legislative branch is authorised to make law, (2) the executive branch is authorised to administer and enforce the law, (3) and the judicial branch is authorised to identify, interpret, and apply the law.
• What are the three documents in which Canada's constitution is written, but not completely exhausted, and what do they consist of?

  1. Constitution Act of 1867
  2. Constitution Act of 1982
  3. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

  They consist, as well as other statute law, the principles of common law and unwritten legal conventions concerning constitutional practise and authority.
• What is the importance of having the constitution written by the three documents?

  It places the burden of liberty not on some document, but on the commitment of members of political community to make good the values of limited principled government.
• Constitutional law is often said to be the "supreme law of political community." This characteristic is true in two senses. What are the two?

  1. The rules of the constitution define political authority. The authority of the courts no less than the authority of the legislative and executive branches.
  2. State action is accountable in the ways it makes the constitution reign supreme.
• What does it mean when we say that the constitution defines political authority?

  In the sense that it structures and authorises all political action. All laws and all exercises of state authority must conform to the requirements of the constitution.

  
  

  The Rule of Law state must act through competent laws and may then only act within the confines of express statutory authority.
• What does it mean when we say that state action is accountable in the way it makes constitution supreme?

  State actions may be rendered a nullity on constitutional grounds, either because of the (1) substance of a law offends the constitution or because (2) some government agency acted without authority.

  
  

  In a federal state, the ground of constitutional context gives rise to questions concerning constitutional excess. The first ground concerns legal equality, both equal protection and application, and challenges are available to citizens in the Rule of Law state.