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111-404: Arbitrary decisions are not necessarily the same as random decisions. For example, during the 1973 oil crisis , Americans were allowed to purchase gasoline only on odd-numbered days if their license plate was odd, and on even-numbered days if their license plate was even. The system was well-defined and not random in its restrictions; however, since license plate numbers are completely unrelated to

222-569: A federal state trying to legislate in an area that the constitution allocates exclusively to the federal parliament, such as ratifying a treaty. Action that appears to be beyond power may be judicially reviewed and, if found to be beyond power, must cease. Legislation that is found to be beyond power will be "invalid" and of no force; this applies to primary legislation, requiring constitutional authorization, and secondary legislation, ordinarily requiring statutory authorization. In this context, "within power", intra vires , "authorized" and "valid" have

333-491: A simple random sample , is a method of selecting items (often called units) from a population where the probability of choosing a specific item is the proportion of those items in the population. For example, with a bowl containing just 10 red marbles and 90 blue marbles, a random selection mechanism would choose a red marble with probability 1/10. A random selection mechanism that selected 10 marbles from this bowl would not necessarily result in 1 red and 9 blue. In situations where

444-402: A students' union may be prohibited as an organization from engaging in activities not concerning students; if the union becomes involved in non-student activities, these activities are considered to be ultra vires of the union's charter, and nobody would be compelled by the charter to follow them. An example from the constitutional law of sovereign states would be a provincial parliament in

555-716: A clinical intervention is used to reduce bias in controlled trials (e.g., randomized controlled trials ). Religion : Although not intended to be random, various forms of divination such as cleromancy see what appears to be a random event as a means for a divine being to communicate their will (see also Free will and Determinism for more). It is generally accepted that there exist three mechanisms responsible for (apparently) random behavior in systems: The many applications of randomness have led to many different methods for generating random data. These methods may vary as to how unpredictable or statistically random they are, and how quickly they can generate random numbers. Before

666-405: A constitution in general terms was "the arrangement of the offices in a state". In his works Constitution of Athens , Politics , and Nicomachean Ethics , he explores different constitutions of his day, including those of Athens, Sparta , and Carthage . He classified both what he regarded as good and what he regarded as bad constitutions, and came to the conclusion that the best constitution

777-539: A cyclical fashion." Numbers like pi are also considered likely to be normal : Pi certainly seems to behave this way. In the first six billion decimal places of pi, each of the digits from 0 through 9 shows up about six hundred million times. Yet such results, conceivably accidental, do not prove normality even in base 10, much less normality in other number bases. In statistics, randomness is commonly used to create simple random samples . This allows surveys of completely random groups of people to provide realistic data that

888-470: A decree issued by the Pope , now referred to as an apostolic constitution . William Blackstone used the term for significant and egregious violations of public trust, of a nature and extent that the transgression would justify a revolutionary response. The term as used by Blackstone was not for a legal text, nor did he intend to include the later American concept of judicial review : "for that were to set

999-456: A mental concept or real object. The principle of semiotic arbitrariness refers to the idea that social convention is what imbues meaning to a given semiosis (any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning) or sign. A logical symbol is a fundamental concept in logic, tokens of which may be marks or a configuration of marks which form a particular pattern. In mathematics, arbitrary corresponds to

1110-555: A mixture of these, such as the tests by Kak, Phillips, Yuen, Hopkins, Beth and Dai, Mund, and Marsaglia and Zaman. Quantum nonlocality has been used to certify the presence of genuine or strong form of randomness in a given string of numbers. Popular perceptions of randomness are frequently mistaken, and are often based on fallacious reasoning or intuitions. This argument is, "In a random selection of numbers, since all numbers eventually appear, those that have not come up yet are 'due', and thus more likely to come up soon." This logic

1221-553: A period of 20 years would be the optimal time for any constitution to be still in force, since "the earth belongs to the living, and not to the dead". Indeed, according to recent studies, the average life of any new written constitution is around 19 years. However, a great number of constitutions do not last more than 10 years, and around 10% do not last more than one year, as was the case of the French Constitution of 1791 . By contrast, some constitutions, notably that of

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1332-603: A period of more than four hundred years, an important aspect of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire . In China , the Hongwu Emperor created and refined a document he called Ancestral Injunctions (first published in 1375, revised twice more before he died in 1398). These rules served as a constitution for the Ming dynasty for the next 250 years. The oldest written document still governing

1443-548: A person's fitness to purchase gasoline, it was still an arbitrary division of people. Similarly, schoolchildren are often organized by their surname in alphabetical order, a non-random yet an arbitrary method—at least in cases where surnames are irrelevant. Arbitrary actions are closely related to teleology , the study of purpose. Actions lacking a telos , a goal, are necessarily arbitrary. With no end to measure against, there can be no standard applied to choices, so all decisions are alike. Note that arbitrary or random methods in

1554-433: A population consists of items that are distinguishable, a random selection mechanism requires equal probabilities for any item to be chosen. That is, if the selection process is such that each member of a population, say research subjects, has the same probability of being chosen, then we can say the selection process is random. According to Ramsey theory , pure randomness (in the sense of there being no discernible pattern)

1665-863: A single code until the Codex Theodosianus (438 AD); later, in the Eastern Empire, the Codex repetitæ prælectionis (534) was highly influential throughout Europe. This was followed in the east by the Ecloga of Leo III the Isaurian (740) and the Basilica of Basil I (878). The Edicts of Ashoka established constitutional principles for the 3rd century BC Maurya king's rule in India . For constitutional principles almost lost to antiquity, see

1776-531: A single comprehensive document, it is said to embody a codified constitution . The Constitution of the United Kingdom is a notable example of an uncodified constitution ; it is instead written in numerous fundamental acts of a legislature, court cases, and treaties. Constitutions concern different levels of organizations, from sovereign countries to companies and unincorporated associations . A treaty that establishes an international organization

1887-455: A sovereign nation today is that of San Marino . The Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini was written in Latin and consists of six books. The first book, with 62 articles, establishes councils, courts, various executive officers, and the powers assigned to them. The remaining books cover criminal and civil law and judicial procedures and remedies. Written in 1600, the document was based upon

1998-538: A state council consisting of 21 members while executive authority was vested in the office of " Lord Protector of the Commonwealth ." This position was designated as a non-hereditary life appointment. The Instrument also required the calling of triennial Parliaments , with each sitting for at least five months. The Instrument of Government was replaced in May 1657 by England's second, and last, codified constitution,

2109-482: A weighted lottery to order teams in its draft. Mathematics : Random numbers are also employed where their use is mathematically important, such as sampling for opinion polls and for statistical sampling in quality control systems. Computational solutions for some types of problems use random numbers extensively, such as in the Monte Carlo method and in genetic algorithms . Medicine : Random allocation of

2220-473: Is ab initio , that is, from inception, not from the date of the finding. It was never "law", even though, if it had been a statute or statutory provision, it might have been adopted according to the procedures for adopting legislation. Sometimes the problem is not that a statute is unconstitutional, but that the application of it is, on a particular occasion, and a court may decide that while there are ways it could be applied that are constitutional, that instance

2331-575: Is a known probability distribution , the frequency of different outcomes over repeated events (or "trials") is predictable. For example, when throwing two dice , the outcome of any particular roll is unpredictable, but a sum of 7 will tend to occur twice as often as 4. In this view, randomness is not haphazardness; it is a measure of uncertainty of an outcome. Randomness applies to concepts of chance, probability , and information entropy . The fields of mathematics, probability, and statistics use formal definitions of randomness, typically assuming that there

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2442-510: Is also its constitution, in that it would define how that organization is constituted. Within states , a constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom. Some constitutions, especially codified constitutions, also act as limiters of state power, by establishing lines which a state's rulers cannot cross, such as fundamental rights . Changes to constitutions frequently require consensus or supermajority . The Constitution of India

2553-427: Is also related to ethics , the philosophy of decision-making. Even if a person has a goal, they may choose to attempt to achieve it in ways that may be considered arbitrary. Rationalism holds that knowledge comes about through intellectual calculation and deduction; many rationalists (though not all) apply this to ethics as well. All decisions should be made through reason and logic, not via whim or how one "feels" what

2664-404: Is approximated by randomization , such as selecting jurors and military draft lotteries. Games : Random numbers were first investigated in the context of gambling , and many randomizing devices, such as dice , shuffling playing cards , and roulette wheels, were first developed for use in gambling. The ability to produce random numbers fairly is vital to electronic gambling, and, as such,

2775-489: Is considered foundational to the rule of law . Excavations in modern-day Iraq by Ernest de Sarzec in 1877 found evidence of the earliest known code of justice , issued by the Sumerian king Urukagina of Lagash c.  2300 BC . Perhaps the earliest prototype for a law of government, this document itself has not yet been discovered; however it is known that it allowed some rights to his citizens. For example, it

2886-646: Is considered part of the compilation of Constitutions) until 1716, when Philip V of Spain gave the Nueva Planta decrees , finishing with the historical laws of Catalonia . These Constitutions were usually made formally as a royal initiative, but required for its approval or repeal the favorable vote of the Catalan Courts , the medieval antecedent of the modern Parliaments. These laws, like other modern constitutions, had preeminence over other laws, and they could not be contradicted by mere decrees or edicts of

2997-497: Is fixed by law. In some countries, a prohibition of arbitrariness is enshrined into the constitution . Article 9 of the Swiss Federal Constitution theoretically overrides even democratic decisions in prohibiting arbitrary government action. The US Supreme Court has overturned laws for having " no rational basis ." A recent study of the U.S. asylum system suggests that arbitrariness in decision-making might be

3108-413: Is impossible, especially for large structures. Mathematician Theodore Motzkin suggested that "while disorder is more probable in general, complete disorder is impossible". Misunderstanding this can lead to numerous conspiracy theories . Cristian S. Calude stated that "given the impossibility of true randomness, the effort is directed towards studying degrees of randomness". It can be proven that there

3219-514: Is infinite hierarchy (in terms of quality or strength) of forms of randomness. In ancient history, the concepts of chance and randomness were intertwined with that of fate. Many ancient peoples threw dice to determine fate, and this later evolved into games of chance. Most ancient cultures used various methods of divination to attempt to circumvent randomness and fate. Beyond religion and games of chance , randomness has been attested for sortition since at least ancient Athenian democracy in

3330-457: Is known that it relieved tax for widows and orphans, and protected the poor from the usury of the rich. After that, many governments ruled by special codes of written laws. The oldest such document still known to exist seems to be the Code of Ur-Nammu of Ur (c. 2050 BC). Some of the better-known ancient law codes are the code of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin , the code of Hammurabi of Babylonia ,

3441-559: Is only correct if applied to a system where numbers that come up are removed from the system, such as when playing cards are drawn and not returned to the deck. In this case, once a jack is removed from the deck, the next draw is less likely to be a jack and more likely to be some other card. However, if the jack is returned to the deck, and the deck is thoroughly reshuffled, a jack is as likely to be drawn as any other card. The same applies in any other process where objects are selected independently, and none are removed after each event, such as

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3552-534: Is opposed to that component of its variation that is causally attributable to the source, the signal. In terms of the development of random networks, for communication randomness rests on the two simple assumptions of Paul Erdős and Alfréd Rényi , who said that there were a fixed number of nodes and this number remained fixed for the life of the network, and that all nodes were equal and linked randomly to each other. The random walk hypothesis considers that asset prices in an organized market evolve at random, in

3663-460: Is random if and only if it withstands all recursively enumerable null sets. The other notions of random sequences include, among others, recursive randomness and Schnorr randomness, which are based on recursively computable martingales. It was shown by Yongge Wang that these randomness notions are generally different. Randomness occurs in numbers such as log(2) and pi . The decimal digits of pi constitute an infinite sequence and "never repeat in

3774-415: Is reflective of the population. Common methods of doing this include drawing names out of a hat or using a random digit chart (a large table of random digits). In information science, irrelevant or meaningless data is considered noise. Noise consists of numerous transient disturbances, with a statistically randomized time distribution. In communication theory , randomness in a signal is called "noise", and

3885-428: Is right. Randomness may occasionally be acceptable as part of a subtask in furtherance of a larger goal, but not in general. In semiotics , the general theory of signs, sign systems, and sign processes, Saussure introduced the notion of arbitrariness according to which there is no necessary connection between the material sign (or signifier ), and the entity it refers to or denotes as its meaning (or signified ) as

3996-566: Is some 'objective' probability distribution. In statistics, a random variable is an assignment of a numerical value to each possible outcome of an event space . This association facilitates the identification and the calculation of probabilities of the events. Random variables can appear in random sequences . A random process is a sequence of random variables whose outcomes do not follow a deterministic pattern, but follow an evolution described by probability distributions . These and other constructs are extremely useful in probability theory and

4107-480: Is that a string of bits is random if and only if it is shorter than any computer program that can produce that string ( Kolmogorov randomness ), which means that random strings are those that cannot be compressed . Pioneers of this field include Andrey Kolmogorov and his student Per Martin-Löf , Ray Solomonoff , and Gregory Chaitin . For the notion of infinite sequence, mathematicians generally accept Per Martin-Löf 's semi-eponymous definition: An infinite sequence

4218-405: Is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity , organization or other type of entity , and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these principles are written down into a single document or set of legal documents, those documents may be said to embody a written constitution ; if they are encompassed in

4329-539: Is the longest written constitution of any country in the world, with 146,385 words in its English-language version, while the Constitution of Monaco is the shortest written constitution with 3,814 words. The Constitution of San Marino might be the world's oldest active written constitution, since some of its core documents have been in operation since 1600, while the Constitution of the United States

4440-496: Is the oldest active codified constitution. The historical life expectancy of a constitution since 1789 is approximately 19 years. The term constitution comes through French from the Latin word constitutio , used for regulations and orders, such as the imperial enactments ( constitutiones principis : edicta, mandata, decreta, rescripta). Later, the term was widely used in canon law for an important determination, especially

4551-410: Is the result of previous events, as is reflected in the concept of karma . As such, this conception is at odds with the idea of randomness, and any reconciliation between both of them would require an explanation. In some religious contexts, procedures that are commonly perceived as randomizers are used for divination. Cleromancy uses the casting of bones or dice to reveal what is seen as the will of

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4662-404: Is thought that it will occur less often in the future. A number may be assumed to be blessed because it has occurred more often than others in the past, and so it is thought likely to come up more often in the future. This logic is valid only if the randomisation might be biased, for example if a die is suspected to be loaded then its failure to roll enough sixes would be evidence of that loading. If

4773-572: The Byzantine emperors ' Novellae (most were taken from Justinian 's Novellae). The Nomocanon was a completely new compilation of civil and canonical regulations, taken from Byzantine sources but completed and reformed by St. Sava to function properly in Serbia. Besides decrees that organized the life of the church, there are various norms regarding civil life; most of these were taken from Prohiron. Legal transplants of Roman - Byzantine law became

4884-748: The Grandees of the New Model Army had presented the Heads of Proposals as their alternative to the more radical Agreement of the People presented by the Agitators and their civilian supporters at the Putney Debates . The Instrument of Government was adopted by Parliament on 15 December 1653, and Oliver Cromwell was installed as Lord Protector on the following day. The constitution set up

4995-539: The Hittite code , the Assyrian code , and Mosaic law . In 621 BC, a scribe named Draco codified the oral laws of the city-state of Athens ; this code prescribed the death penalty for many offenses (thus creating the modern term "draconian" for very strict rules). In 594 BC, Solon , the ruler of Athens, created the new Solonian Constitution . It eased the burden of the workers, and determined that membership of

5106-510: The House of Commons . The Nomocanon of Saint Sava ( Serbian : Законоправило/Zakonopravilo ) was the first Serbian constitution from 1219. St. Sava's Nomocanon was the compilation of civil law , based on Roman Law , and canon law , based on Ecumenical Councils . Its basic purpose was to organize the functioning of the young Serbian kingdom and the Serbian church . Saint Sava began

5217-579: The Humble Petition and Advice , proposed by Sir Christopher Packe . The Petition offered hereditary monarchy to Oliver Cromwell , asserted Parliament 's control over issuing new taxation , provided an independent council to advise the king and safeguarded "Triennial" meetings of Parliament. A modified version of the Humble Petition with the clause on kingship removed was ratified on 25 May. This finally met its demise in conjunction with

5328-663: The Instrument of Government included elements incorporated from an earlier document " Heads of Proposals ", which had been agreed to by the Army Council in 1647, as a set of propositions intended to be a basis for a constitutional settlement after King Charles I was defeated in the First English Civil War . Charles had rejected the propositions, but before the start of the Second Civil War,

5439-725: The Lord High Chancellor of Sweden Axel Oxenstierna after the death of king Gustavus Adolphus . This can be seen as the first written constitution adopted by a modern state. In 1639, the Colony of Connecticut adopted the Fundamental Orders , which was the first North American constitution. It is the basis for every new Connecticut constitution since, and is also the reason for Connecticut 's nickname, "the Constitution State ". On 4 January 1649,

5550-505: The Monty Hall problem , a game show scenario in which a car is hidden behind one of three doors, and two goats are hidden as booby prizes behind the others. Once the contestant has chosen a door, the host opens one of the remaining doors to reveal a goat, eliminating that door as an option. With only two doors left (one with the car, the other with another goat), the player must decide to either keep their decision, or to switch and select

5661-459: The Myanmar 2008 Constitution was being secretly drafted for more than 17 years, whereas at the other extreme, during the drafting of Japan 's 1946 Constitution, the bureaucrats drafted everything in no more than a week. Japan has the oldest unamended constitution in the world. The record for the shortest overall process of drafting, adoption, and ratification of a national constitution belongs to

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5772-523: The Romania 's 1938 constitution, which installed a royal dictatorship in less than a month. Studies showed that typically extreme cases where the constitution-making process either takes too long or is extremely short were non-democracies. In principle, constitutional rights are not a specific characteristic of democratic countries. Autocratic states have constitutions, such as that of North Korea , which officially grants every citizen, among other things,

5883-621: The Rump Parliament declared "that the people are, under God, the original of all just power; that the Commons of England, being chosen by and representing the people, have the supreme power in this nation". The English Protectorate set up by Oliver Cromwell after the English Civil War promulgated the first detailed written constitution adopted by a modern state; it was called the Instrument of Government . This formed

5994-1094: The Salic Law of the Franks , all written soon after 500. In 506, the Breviarum or "Lex Romana" of Alaric II , king of the Visigoths, adopted and consolidated the Codex Theodosianus together with assorted earlier Roman laws. Systems that appeared somewhat later include the Edictum Rothari of the Lombards (643), the Lex Visigothorum (654), the Lex Alamannorum (730), and the Lex Frisionum (c. 785). These continental codes were all composed in Latin, while Anglo-Saxon

6105-815: The Statuti Comunali (Town Statute) of 1300, itself influenced by the Codex Justinianus , and it remains in force today. In 1392 the Carta de Logu was legal code of the Giudicato of Arborea promulgated by the giudicessa Eleanor . It was in force in Sardinia until it was superseded by the code of Charles Felix in April 1827. The Carta was a work of great importance in Sardinian history. It

6216-792: The code of Manu . Many of the Germanic peoples that filled the power vacuum left by the Western Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages codified their laws. One of the first of these Germanic law codes to be written was the Visigothic Code of Euric (471 AD). This was followed by the Lex Burgundionum , applying separate codes for Germans and for Romans; the Pactus Alamannorum ; and

6327-471: The deterministic ideas of some religions, such as those where the universe is created by an omniscient deity who is aware of all past and future events. If the universe is regarded to have a purpose, then randomness can be seen as impossible. This is one of the rationales for religious opposition to evolution , which states that non-random selection is applied to the results of random genetic variation. Hindu and Buddhist philosophies state that any event

6438-543: The freedom of expression . However, the extent to which governments abide by their own constitutional provisions varies. In North Korea, for example, the Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System are said to have eclipsed the constitution in importance as a frame of government in practice. Developing a legal and political tradition of strict adherence to constitutional provisions

6549-456: The United States, have remained in force for several centuries, often without major revision for long periods of time. The most common reasons for these frequent changes are the political desire for an immediate outcome and the short time devoted to the constitutional drafting process. A study in 2009 showed that the average time taken to draft a constitution is around 16 months, however there were also some extreme cases registered. For example,

6660-639: The Wise the Grand Prince of Kiev , was granted to Great Novgorod around 1017, and in 1054 was incorporated into the Russkaya Pravda ; it became the law for all of Kievan Rus' . It survived only in later editions of the 15th century. In England, Henry I's proclamation of the Charter of Liberties in 1100 bound the king for the first time in his treatment of the clergy and the nobility. This idea

6771-406: The advent of computational random number generators , generating large amounts of sufficiently random numbers (which is important in statistics) required a lot of work. Results would sometimes be collected and distributed as random number tables . There are many practical measures of randomness for a binary sequence. These include measures based on frequency, discrete transforms , complexity , or

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6882-477: The basis of government for the short-lived republic from 1653 to 1657 by providing a legal rationale for the increasing power of Cromwell after Parliament consistently failed to govern effectively. Most of the concepts and ideas embedded into modern constitutional theory, especially bicameralism , separation of powers , the written constitution, and judicial review , can be traced back to the experiments of that period. Drafted by Major-General John Lambert in 1653,

6993-645: The basis of the Serbian medieval law. The essence of Zakonopravilo was based on Corpus Iuris Civilis . Stefan Dušan , emperor of Serbs and Greeks, enacted Dušan's Code ( Serbian : Душанов Законик/Dušanov Zakonik ) in Serbia , in two state congresses: in 1349 in Skopje and in 1354 in Serres . It regulated all social spheres, so it was the second Serbian constitution, after St. Sava's Nomocanon (Zakonopravilo). The Code

7104-475: The basis of universal consensus of all chiefs following discussions that were initiated by a single nation. The position of Sachem descends through families and are allocated by the senior female clan heads, though, prior to the filling of the position, candidacy is ultimately democratically decided by the community itself. In 1634 the Kingdom of Sweden adopted the 1634 Instrument of Government , drawn up under

7215-412: The beginning of a scenario, one might calculate the probability of a certain event. However, as soon as one gains more information about the scenario, one may need to re-calculate the probability accordingly. For example, when being told that a woman has two children, one might be interested in knowing if either of them is a girl, and if yes, the probability that the other child is also a girl. Considering

7326-420: The belief in a deity or deities, believe that everything has a purpose and that nothing is arbitrary. In these philosophies, God created the universe for a reason, and every event flows from that. Even seemingly random events cannot escape God's hand and purpose. This is somewhat related to the argument from design —the argument for God's existence because a purpose can be found in the universe. Arbitrariness

7437-494: The best deterministic methods. Many scientific fields are concerned with randomness: In the 19th century, scientists used the idea of random motions of molecules in the development of statistical mechanics to explain phenomena in thermodynamics and the properties of gases . According to several standard interpretations of quantum mechanics , microscopic phenomena are objectively random. That is, in an experiment that controls all causally relevant parameters, some aspects of

7548-705: The cause of large disparities in outcomes between different adjudicators, a phenomenon described as refugee roulette . Article 330 of the Russian penal code defines arbitrariness as a specific crime, but with a very broad definition encompassing any "actions contrary to the order presented by a law". Random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Individual random events are, by definition, unpredictable, but if there

7659-498: The children is female, this rules out the boy-boy scenario, leaving only three ways of having the two children: boy-girl, girl-boy, girl-girl. From this, it can be seen only ⅓ of these scenarios would have the other child also be a girl (see Boy or girl paradox for more). In general, by using a probability space, one is less likely to miss out on possible scenarios, or to neglect the importance of new information. This technique can be used to provide insights in other situations such as

7770-441: The consciousness of rationality so far as that consciousness is developed in a particular nation." Since 1789, along with the Constitution of the United States of America (U.S. Constitution), which is the oldest and shortest written constitution still in force, close to 800 constitutions have been adopted and subsequently amended around the world by independent states. In the late 18th century, Thomas Jefferson predicted that

7881-427: The context of gambling , but later in connection with physics. Statistics is used to infer an underlying probability distribution of a collection of empirical observations. For the purposes of simulation , it is necessary to have a large supply of random numbers —or means to generate them on demand. Algorithmic information theory studies, among other topics, what constitutes a random sequence . The central idea

7992-712: The death of Cromwell and the Restoration of the monarchy. All of the British colonies in North America that were to become the 13 original United States, adopted their own constitutions in 1776 and 1777, during the American Revolution (and before the later Articles of Confederation and United States Constitution ), with the exceptions of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts adopted its Constitution in 1780,

8103-415: The die is known to be fair, then previous rolls can give no indication of future events. In nature, events rarely occur with a frequency that is known a priori , so observing outcomes to determine which events are more probable makes sense. However, it is fallacious to apply this logic to systems designed and known to make all outcomes equally likely, such as shuffled cards, dice, and roulette wheels. In

8214-553: The document focuses more on social morality than on institutions of government, and remains a notable early attempt at a government constitution. The Constitution of Medina ( Arabic : صحیفة المدینه , Ṣaḥīfat al-Madīna), also known as the Charter of Medina, was drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad after his flight ( hijra ) to Yathrib where he became political leader. It constituted a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of

8325-834: The fold of one community – the Ummah . The precise dating of the Constitution of Medina remains debated, but generally, scholars agree it was written shortly after the Hijra (622). In Wales , the Cyfraith Hywel (Law of Hywel) was codified by Hywel Dda c. 942–950. It served as the main law code in Wales until it was superseded by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 . The Pravda Yaroslava , originally combined by Yaroslav

8436-457: The form of a kleroterion . The formalization of odds and chance was perhaps earliest done by the Chinese of 3,000 years ago. The Greek philosophers discussed randomness at length, but only in non-quantitative forms. It was only in the 16th century that Italian mathematicians began to formalize the odds associated with various games of chance. The invention of calculus had a positive impact on

8547-462: The formal study of randomness. In the 1888 edition of his book The Logic of Chance , John Venn wrote a chapter on The conception of randomness that included his view of the randomness of the digits of pi (π), by using them to construct a random walk in two dimensions. The early part of the 20th century saw a rapid growth in the formal analysis of randomness, as various approaches to the mathematical foundations of probability were introduced. In

8658-551: The gods. In most of its mathematical, political, social and religious uses, randomness is used for its innate "fairness" and lack of bias. Politics : Athenian democracy was based on the concept of isonomia (equality of political rights), and used complex allotment machines to ensure that the positions on the ruling committees that ran Athens were fairly allocated. Allotment is now restricted to selecting jurors in Anglo-Saxon legal systems, and in situations where "fairness"

8769-412: The implication of the use of "arbitrary" is that generality will hold—even if an opponent were to choose the item in question. In which case, arbitrary can be regarded as synonymous to worst-case . Arbitrary comes from the Latin arbitrarius , the source of arbiter ; someone who is tasked to judge some matter. An arbitrary legal judgment is a decision made at the discretion of the judge, not one that

8880-678: The influence of genes and the environment), and to some extent randomly. For example, the density of freckles that appear on a person's skin is controlled by genes and exposure to light; whereas the exact location of individual freckles seems random. As far as behavior is concerned, randomness is important if an animal is to behave in a way that is unpredictable to others. For instance, insects in flight tend to move about with random changes in direction, making it difficult for pursuing predators to predict their trajectories. The mathematical theory of probability arose from attempts to formulate mathematical descriptions of chance events, originally in

8991-456: The judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government". Generally, every modern written constitution confers specific powers on an organization or institutional entity, established upon the primary condition that it abides by the constitution's limitations. According to Scott Gordon, a political organization is constitutional to the extent that it "contain[s] institutionalized mechanisms of power control for

9102-589: The king. The Kouroukan Founga was a 13th-century charter of the Mali Empire in West Africa , reconstructed from oral tradition in 1988 by Siriman Kouyaté . It included the "right to life and to the preservation of physical integrity" and significant protections for women. The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by a Reichstag in Nuremberg headed by Emperor Charles IV that fixed, for

9213-402: The legal judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land. This provision became the cornerstone of English liberty after that point. The social contract in the original case was between the king and the nobility but was gradually extended to all of the people. It led to the system of Constitutional Monarchy , with further reforms shifting the balance of power from the monarchy and nobility to

9324-527: The methods used to create them are usually regulated by government Gaming Control Boards . Random drawings are also used to determine lottery winners. In fact, randomness has been used for games of chance throughout history, and to select out individuals for an unwanted task in a fair way (see drawing straws ). Sports : Some sports, including American football , use coin tosses to randomly select starting conditions for games or seed tied teams for postseason play . The National Basketball Association uses

9435-491: The mid-to-late-20th century, ideas of algorithmic information theory introduced new dimensions to the field via the concept of algorithmic randomness . Although randomness had often been viewed as an obstacle and a nuisance for many centuries, in the 20th century computer scientists began to realize that the deliberate introduction of randomness into computations can be an effective tool for designing better algorithms. In some cases, such randomized algorithms even outperform

9546-520: The mutation is not entirely random however as e.g. biologically important regions may be more protected from mutations. Several authors also claim that evolution (and sometimes development) requires a specific form of randomness, namely the introduction of qualitatively new behaviors. Instead of the choice of one possibility among several pre-given ones, this randomness corresponds to the formation of new possibilities. The characteristics of an organism arise to some extent deterministically (e.g., under

9657-604: The oldest still-functioning constitution of any U.S. state; while Connecticut and Rhode Island officially continued to operate under their old colonial charters, until they adopted their first state constitutions in 1818 and 1843, respectively. What is sometimes called the "enlightened constitution" model was developed by philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment such as Thomas Hobbes , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , and John Locke . The model proposed that constitutional governments should be stable, adaptable, accountable, open and should represent

9768-409: The other door. Intuitively, one might think the player is choosing between two doors with equal probability, and that the opportunity to choose another door makes no difference. However, an analysis of the probability spaces would reveal that the contestant has received new information, and that changing to the other door would increase their chances of winning. Constitution A constitution

9879-451: The outcome still vary randomly. For example, if a single unstable atom is placed in a controlled environment, it cannot be predicted how long it will take for the atom to decay—only the probability of decay in a given time. Thus, quantum mechanics does not specify the outcome of individual experiments, but only the probabilities. Hidden variable theories reject the view that nature contains irreducible randomness: such theories posit that in

9990-550: The people (i.e., support democracy ). Agreements and Constitutions of Laws and Freedoms of the Zaporizian Host was written in 1710 by Pylyp Orlyk , hetman of the Zaporozhian Host . It was written to establish a free Zaporozhian-Ukrainian Republic , with the support of Charles XII of Sweden . It is notable in that it established a democratic standard for the separation of powers in government between

10101-507: The processes that appear random, properties with a certain statistical distribution are at work behind the scenes, determining the outcome in each case. The modern evolutionary synthesis ascribes the observed diversity of life to random genetic mutations followed by natural selection . The latter retains some random mutations in the gene pool due to the systematically improved chance for survival and reproduction that those mutated genes confer on individuals who possess them. The location of

10212-403: The protection of the interests and liberties of the citizenry , including those that may be in the minority ". Activities of officials within an organization or polity that fall within the constitutional or statutory authority of those officials are termed "within power" (or, in Latin, intra vires ); if they do not, they are termed "beyond power" (or, in Latin, ultra vires ). For example,

10323-696: The reign of Zara Yaqob . Even so, its first recorded use in the function of a constitution (supreme law of the land) is with Sarsa Dengel beginning in 1563. The Fetha Negest remained the supreme law in Ethiopia until 1931, when a modern-style Constitution was first granted by Emperor Haile Selassie I. In the Principality of Catalonia , the Catalan constitutions were promulgated by the Court from 1283 (or even two centuries before, if Usatges of Barcelona

10434-404: The roll of a die, a coin toss, or most lottery number selection schemes. Truly random processes such as these do not have memory, which makes it impossible for past outcomes to affect future outcomes. In fact, there is no finite number of trials that can guarantee a success. In a random sequence of numbers, a number may be said to be cursed because it has come up less often in the past, and so it

10545-546: The ruling class was to be based on wealth ( plutocracy ), rather than on birth ( aristocracy ). Cleisthenes again reformed the Athenian constitution and set it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. Aristotle (c. 350 BC) was the first to make a formal distinction between ordinary law and constitutional law, establishing ideas of constitution and constitutionalism , and attempting to classify different forms of constitutional government. The most basic definition he used to describe

10656-400: The same meaning; as do "beyond power", ultra vires , "not authorized" and "invalid". In most but not all modern states the constitution has supremacy over ordinary statutory law (see Uncodified constitution below); in such states when an official act is unconstitutional, i.e. it is not a power granted to the government by the constitution, that act is null and void , and the nullification

10767-498: The sense that the expected value of their change is zero but the actual value may turn out to be positive or negative. More generally, asset prices are influenced by a variety of unpredictable events in the general economic environment. Random selection can be an official method to resolve tied elections in some jurisdictions. Its use in politics originates long ago. Many offices in ancient Athens were chosen by lot instead of modern voting. Randomness can be seen as conflicting with

10878-591: The significant tribes and families of Yathrib (later known as Medina ), including Muslims , Jews , and pagans . The document was drawn up with the explicit concern of bringing to an end the bitter intertribal fighting between the clans of the Aws ( Aus ) and Khazraj within Medina. To this effect it instituted a number of rights and responsibilities for the Muslim, Jewish, and pagan communities of Medina bringing them within

10989-413: The standard sense of arbitrary may not qualify as arbitrary choices philosophically if they were done in furtherance of a larger purpose (such as the examples above for the purposes of establishing discipline in school and avoiding overcrowding at gas stations). Nihilism is the philosophy that believes that there is no purpose in the universe, and that every choice is arbitrary. According to nihilism,

11100-619: The supreme law used in parts of Germany as late as 1900. Around 1240, the Coptic Egyptian Christian writer, 'Abul Fada'il Ibn al-'Assal , wrote the Fetha Negest in Arabic . 'Ibn al-Assal took his laws partly from apostolic writings and Mosaic law and partly from the former Byzantine codes. There are a few historical records claiming that this law code was translated into Ge'ez and entered Ethiopia around 1450 in

11211-406: The term "any" and the universal quantifier ∀ {\displaystyle \forall } , as in an arbitrary division of a set or an arbitrary permutation of a sequence. Its use implies generality and that a statement does not only apply to special cases, but that one may select any available choice and the statement will still hold. For example, one might say that: Even further,

11322-426: The two events independently, one might expect that the probability that the other child is female is ½ (50%), but by building a probability space illustrating all possible outcomes, one would notice that the probability is actually only ⅓ (33%). To be sure, the probability space does illustrate four ways of having these two children: boy-boy, girl-boy, boy-girl, and girl-girl. But once it is known that at least one of

11433-436: The universe contains no value and is essentially meaningless. Because the universe and all of its constituents contain no higher goal for us to make subgoals from, all aspects of human life and experiences are completely arbitrary. There is no right or wrong decision, thought or practice and whatever choice a human being makes is just as meaningless and empty as any other choice he or she could have made. Many brands of theism ,

11544-486: The various applications of randomness . Randomness is most often used in statistics to signify well-defined statistical properties. Monte Carlo methods , which rely on random input (such as from random number generators or pseudorandom number generators ), are important techniques in science, particularly in the field of computational science . By analogy, quasi-Monte Carlo methods use quasi-random number generators . Random selection, when narrowly associated with

11655-657: The work on the Serbian Nomocanon in 1208 while he was at Mount Athos , using The Nomocanon in Fourteen Titles , Synopsis of Stefan the Efesian , Nomocanon of John Scholasticus , and Ecumenical Council documents, which he modified with the canonical commentaries of Aristinos and Joannes Zonaras , local church meetings, rules of the Holy Fathers , the law of Moses , the translation of Prohiron, and

11766-468: Was a mixed system including monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic elements. He also distinguished between citizens, who had the right to participate in the state, and non-citizens and slaves, who did not. The Romans initially codified their constitution in 450 BC as the Twelve Tables . They operated under a series of laws that were added from time to time, but Roman law was not reorganized into

11877-652: Was an organic, coherent, and systematic work of legislation encompassing the civil and penal law . The Gayanashagowa , the oral constitution of the Haudenosaunee nation also known as the Great Law of Peace, established a system of governance as far back as 1190 AD (though perhaps more recently at 1451) in which the Sachems , or tribal chiefs, of the Iroquois League's member nations made decisions on

11988-598: Was based on Roman - Byzantine law . The legal transplanting within articles 171 and 172 of Dušan's Code, which regulated juridical independence, is notable. They were taken from the Byzantine code Basilika (book VII, 1, 16–17). In 1222, Hungarian King Andrew II issued the Golden Bull of 1222 . Between 1220 and 1230, a Saxon administrator, Eike von Repgow , composed the Sachsenspiegel , which became

12099-617: Was extended and refined by the English barony when they forced King John to sign Magna Carta in 1215. The most important single article of Magna Carta, related to " habeas corpus ", provided that the king was not permitted to imprison, outlaw, exile or kill anyone at a whim – there must be due process of law first. This article, Article 39, of Magna Carta read: No free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor shall we go against him or send against him, unless by

12210-404: Was not allowed or legitimate. In such a case, only that application may be ruled unconstitutional. Historically, the remedies for such violations have been petitions for common law writs , such as quo warranto . Scholars debate whether a constitution must necessarily be autochthonous , resulting from the nations "spirit". Hegel said "A constitution...is the work of centuries; it is the idea,

12321-665: Was used for those of England, beginning with the Code of Æthelberht of Kent (602). Around 893, Alfred the Great combined this and two other earlier Saxon codes, with various Mosaic and Christian precepts, to produce the Doom book code of laws for England. Japan 's Seventeen-article constitution written in 604, reportedly by Prince Shōtoku , is an early example of a constitution in Asian political history. Influenced by Buddhist teachings,

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