Constitutional law
Overview
 
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...

, namely, the executive
Executive
Executive may refer to:* Executive , branch of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy* Executive , monthly news magazine established in 1999...

, the legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...

 and the judiciary
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

.

Not all nation states have codified constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

s, though all such states have a jus commune
Jus commune
Jus commune or ius commune is Latin for "common law" in certain jurisdictions. It is often used by civil law jurists to refer to those aspects of the civil law system's invariate legal principles, sometimes called "the law of the land" in English law...

, or law of the land, that may consist of a variety of imperative and consensual rules. These may include customary law, conventions
Convention (norm)
A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....

, statutory law
Statutory law
Statutory law or statute law is written law set down by a legislature or by a legislator .Statutes may originate with national, state legislatures or local municipalities...

, judge-made law or international rules and norms
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

, and so on.
Constitutional laws may often be considered second order rulemaking or rules about making rules to exercise power.
Quotations

"A law can be both economic folly and constitutional." ~ Antonin Scalia

"I have three degrees in history and only one in law, but since I came back to specialize in constitutional law where history is so essentially a part and an explanation of much that exists, the two disciplines blended very well." ~ Frank Scott

"One country, one constitution, one destiny." ~ Daniel Webster, Speech, March 15, 1837.

"The Constitution devotes the national domain to union, to justice, to defence, to welfare and to liberty. But there is a higher law than the Constitution." ~ William H. Seward, Speech, March 11, 1850.

"The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution." ~ Byron R. White

"The current constitutional law places the president of the republic in an embarrassing situation." ~ Jose Eduardo Dos Santos Category:Law and government

 
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