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• India has the longest constitution (1947) - 400 pages, 448 articles in 24 parts, 12 schedules and 97 amendments
• South Korea has the constitution with 41 pages, 130 articles, 9 amendments
• Malaysia has the constitution with 205 pages, 230 articles in 15 parts, 13 schedules and 42 amendments
• Tajikistan has the constitution with 17 pages, 100 articles in 10 parts and 2 amendments
• Turkey has the constitution with 108 pages, 177 articles
• The US constitution (1789) is 4 pages (now 21 pages) with 7 articles and 27 amendments
• The Constitution Of Monaco is the shortest written constitution, containing 10 chapters with 97 articles, and a total of 3,814 words
• The UK, Canada, and New Zealand have "unwritten constitutions" which are not codified in a single document but rather written down in a variety of official documents
• Constitution


  Every state, political organization, club, or other group has a constitution, or set of rules by which power is distributed among the members
• Constitution


  • Tells who is to carry out the major functions of politics, how the people holding those positions are to be chosen, who is to be in charge during an emergency, and by what procedures the constitution itself may be changed
• Constitution


  Contains certain rules which define the organs of the government & how they originate, their mutual relationships, & the relationships between the government & the people
• Constitution


  A basic design of the structure & power of the government and the rights & duties of its citizens
• Constitution


  A selection of legal rules which govern the government of that country and which have been embodied in a document
• How a constitution is created

  1. King's Decree

  2. Evolution

  3. Revolution

  4. Constituent Assembly
• Purpose of Constitution

  • A statement of national ideals
  • Formalises the structure of government
  • Establishes the legitimacy of government
• Classification of constitutions

  • Evolved & enacted constitution
  • Unwritten constitution
  • Written constitution
  • Flexible & rigid constitution
• Evolved & enacted constitution

  Evolutionary changes, political institutions molded & shaped over time
• Unwritten constitution


  No single document or documents forming the constitution but many sources like statutes, judicial decisions, precedents, traditional legal documents
• Written constitution


  Planned system, formulated & adopted by a deliberate creation, designed after considering the state's political & historical background and its population composition
• Flexible constitution


  Easy to change according to circumstances, deadlock rarely occurs among members of the legislative branch
• Rigid constitution

  Hard to change, deadlock often occurs among members of the legislative branch, courts become the "guardians" of the constitution
• Good constitution


  • Provisions are clear in meaning, must be written, should be comprehensive - brief but covers all areas of government, incorporates people's fundamental rights, limits power of government, should be amendable legally, corresponds to the actual conditions of the state
• Contents of a written constitution

  • Fundamental, civil & political rights
  • Provisions outlining the organisation of government
  • Provision for the amendment of the constitution
• Development & expansion of constitution

  1. Custom & usage

  2. Judicial interpretation

  3. Statutes

  4. Amendment

  5. Informal method

  6. Attitude of people
• Unitary state


  A state in which no other governmental body but the central government has any areas of policy that are exclusively under its control, local and regional political bodies may potentially be overruled by the central government
• Federal state


  A federation where two governments control the same group of people but with regard to different political questions, often the result of a compromise by which reluctant members were induced to join in a state
• As of 2001, a total of 20 states were federal systems while 173 were unitary
• Unitary states


  • Brunei, Denmark, Indonesia, Japan, Tajikistan, South Korea, Turkey, China, Philippines
• Federal states


  • Australia, US, Malaysia, Canada, India