INTRODUCTION TO CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

CONSTITUTION
- It is the fundamental law or basis of government.
- It is established by the people in the original sovereign capacity to promote their
own happiness and permanently to secure their rights, property, independence,
and common welfare.
PURPOSE OF CONSTITUTION
The purpose of the Constitution is to prescribe a framework of the system of government
and assign to different departments their respective powers and duties, and to establish
certain fixed first principles on which government is founded. Also to promote public
welfare, which involves the safety, prosperity, health, and happiness of the people.
CLASSIFICATION OF CONSTITUTION
A constitution is classified as either 1) written and unwritten, 2) cumulative or evolved and
conventional or enacted; and 3) rigid and flexible.
1. Written and Unwritten Constitution – A written constitution is one in which most
of its provisions are embodied in a single formal written instrument or instruments.
It is a work of conscious art and the result of a deliberate effort to lay down a body
of fundamental principles under which government shall be organized and
conducted.
- Unwritten constitution is 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.
2. Cumulative and Conventional – A constitution is cumulative or evolved when it
has its origin mainly in custom, common law principles, decisions of courts. It is
the product of historical evolution and growth rather than of deliberate and formal
enactment. It has no formal starting point, is not struck off at a specific date, and it
changes by slow gradual accretion rather than by formal legal process.
- Conventional or enacted is one which has been formulated usually by
constitutional assembly or promulgated by the King. It is struck-off at a definite time
and place.
3. Rigid and Flexible – A rigid constitution is one that can be amended only by a
formal and usually difficult process, while a flexible is one that can be altered by
the same body that makes ordinary laws of the state.
ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF A GOOD WRITTEN CONSTITUTION
A good written constitution must be broad, brief, and definite. Broad, because it must
outline an organization of the government for the whole state. Brief, because its nature
requires that only its great outline should be marked, its important objects designated and
the minor ingredients which composed those objects be deduced from the nature of the
objects themselves; Definite, because any vagueness which may result in the opposing
interpretation of its provision may cause incalculable harm and chaos to the nation.
PARTS OF THE CONSTITUTION
1. Constitution of Government – This portion of the Constitution deals with the
framework of government as well as its powers, and also that of defining the
electorate.
2. Constitution of Liberty – This enumerates the fundamental rights of the people
guaranteed under the constitution.
3. Constitution of Sovereignty – This part indicates the manner of amending or
revising the Constitution by the people.
THE THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT
1. Legislative Department – Legislative power is the power of lawmaking, the
framing and enactment of laws. The legislative is conferred upon Congress: House
of Representative and the Philippine Senate.
2. Executive Department – Executive Power is briefly described as the power to
enforce and administer the laws exercised by the President of the Philippines.
3. Judicial Department – Judicial Power is vested in the Supreme Court and other
lower courts established by law. Among others, it involves the duty to settle actual
controversies involving rights, which are legally demandable and enforceable.
CONCEPT OF STATE, GOVERNMENT & NATION
State - A state is a community of persons more or less numerous, permanently occupying
a definite portion of territory, having a government of their own to which the great body of
inhabitants render obedience, and enjoying freedom from external control.
ELEMENTS OF STATE
People – It refers to the mass of population living within the state.
Territory – It includes not only the land over which the jurisdiction of the state extends,
but also the rivers and lakes therein, a certain area of the sea which abuts upon its coasts
and the air space above it.
Government – It refers to the agency through which the will of the state is formulated,
expressed and carried out.
Sovereignty – the supreme power of the state to command and enforce obedience to its
will from people within its jurisdiction and to have freedom from foreign control.
Internal – power of the state to rule within its territory
External – freedom of the state to carry out its activities without subjection to or control
by other states.
NATION
- A group of people bound together by certain characteristics such as common
social origin, language, customs and traditions and who believe that they are one
and distinct from others. The term is more strictly synonymous with “people”.
- A nation may or may not be independent of external control.
- A single nation may be made up of several states.
Example : The United States is a melting pot of several nationalities.
The Arab nation is politically divided into several sovereign states: Among them are:
EGYPT, SAUDI ARABIA, JORDAN, SYRIA,LEBANON and others.