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114-577: The Constitution of Rwanda was adopted by referendum on May 26, 2003. It replaced the Constitution of 1991. The Constitution provides for a presidential system of government, with separation of powers between the three branches. It condemns the Rwandan genocide in the preamble, expressing hope for reconciliation and prosperity. Between 1994 and 2003 Rwanda was governed by a set of documents combining President Habyarimana 's 1991 Constitution,

228-569: 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

342-402: 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

456-405: 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

570-470: 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

684-466: A different meaning with the development of the principle of self-determination and the prohibition against the threat or use of force as jus cogens norms of modern international law . The United Nations Charter , the Draft Declaration on Rights and Duties of States , and the charters of regional international organizations express the view that all states are juridically equal and enjoy

798-556: A legal basis in domestic law for the purposes of the Convention". On 9 October 2014, the US's Federal Court stated that "the TRNC purportedly operates as a democratic republic with a president, prime minister, legislature and judiciary". On 2 September 2015, ECtHR decided that "...the court system set up in the "TRNC" was to be considered to have been "established by law" with reference to

912-491: A more powerful neighbour; Belarus, in its relationship with Russia, has been proposed as a contemporary example of a semi-sovereign state. In a somewhat different sense, the term semi-sovereign was famously applied to West Germany by political scientist Peter Katzenstein in his 1987 book Policy and Politics in West Germany: The Growth of a Semi-sovereign State, due to having a political system in which

1026-410: A new entity, but other states do not. Hersch Lauterpacht, one of the theory's main proponents, suggested that a state must grant recognition as a possible solution. However, a state may use any criteria when judging if they should give recognition and they have no obligation to use such criteria. Many states may only recognise another state if it is to their advantage. In 1912, L. F. L. Oppenheim said

1140-632: A one-party state, as "under the guise of preventing another genocide, the government displays a marked intolerance of the most basic forms of dissent". Clause 179 of the constitution is concerned with the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and it creates the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide in Kigali. Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute

1254-553: 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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1368-603: 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

1482-863: 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

1596-455: 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

1710-538: 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,

1824-416: A state to recognise other states. Recognition is often withheld when a new state is seen as illegitimate or has come about in breach of international law. Almost universal non-recognition by the international community of Rhodesia and Northern Cyprus are good examples of this, the former only having been recognized by South Africa, and the latter only recognized by Turkey. In the case of Rhodesia, recognition

1938-443: A state was defined by having a territory, a population, government, and capacity to enter into relations with other states. The Montevideo Convention criteria do not automatically create a state because additional requirements must be met. While they play an important role, they do not determine the status of a country in all cases, such as Kosovo , Rhodesia , and Somaliland . In practice international relations take into account

2052-473: 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

2166-471: Is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. Some argue that the criteria are mainly political, not legal. L.C. Green cited the recognition of the unborn Polish and Czechoslovak states in World War I and explained that "since recognition of statehood is a matter of discretion, it is open to any existing State to accept as a state any entity it wishes, regardless of

2280-458: Is commonly considered to be such a state. Outlining the concept of a de facto state for EurasiaNet in early 2024, Laurence Broers wrote: De facto states can be understood as a product of the very system that excludes the possibility of their existence: the post-Second World War and post-colonial system of sovereign and equal states covering every centimeter of the globe. The hegemony of this system, at least until recent years,

2394-489: 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

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2508-646: 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

2622-438: 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

2736-475: Is contested or where it is not exercised over their whole area. Currently, the international community includes more than 200 sovereign states, most of which are represented in the United Nations . These states exist in a system of international relations, where each state takes into account the policies of other states by making its own calculations. From this point of view, States are integrated into

2850-457: 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 ,

2964-506: Is more controversial than that of sovereignty. It is an indisputable fact that this conception, from the moment when it was introduced into political science until the present day, has never had a meaning, which was universally agreed upon." In the opinion of H. V. Evatt of the High Court of Australia , "sovereignty is neither a question of fact, nor a question of law, but a question that does not arise at all". Sovereignty has taken on

3078-470: Is most commonly conceptualised as something categorical, which is either present or absent, and the coherence of any intermediate position in that binary has been questioned, especially in the context of international law. In spite of this, some authors admit the concept of a semi-sovereign state , a state which is officially acknowledged as sovereign but whose theoretical sovereignty is significantly impaired in practice, such as by being de facto subjected to

3192-433: Is recognised as sovereign by at least one other state. This theory of recognition was developed in the 19th century. Under it, a state was sovereign if another sovereign state recognised it as such. Because of this, new states could not immediately become part of the international community or be bound by international law, and recognised nations did not have to respect international law in their dealings with them. In 1815, at

3306-467: Is the concept of nation-state sovereignty based on territoriality and the absence of a role for external agents in domestic structures. It is an international system of states, multinational corporations , and organizations that began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Sovereignty is a term that is frequently misused. Up until the 19th century, the radicalised concept of a "standard of civilization"

3420-539: 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

3534-496: 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

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3648-414: Is usually required to have a permanent population, defined territory, a government not under another, and the capacity to interact with other sovereign states . In actual practice, recognition or non-recognition by other states plays an important role in determining the status of a country. Unrecognized states often have difficulty engaging in diplomatic relations with other sovereign states. Since

3762-607: Is what created the possibility of a de facto state as an anomaly existing outside of it - or in Alexander Iskandaryan 's memorable phrase, as "temporary technical errors within the system of international law." The Soviet and Yugoslav collapses resulted in the emergence of numerous such entities, several of which, including Abkhazia, Transdniester, South Ossetia and the NKR , survived in the margins of international relations for decades despite non-recognition. Sovereignty

3876-572: 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

3990-568: The Congress of Vienna , the Final Act recognised only 39 sovereign states in the European diplomatic system, and as a result, it was firmly established that in the future new states would have to be recognised by other states, and that meant in practice recognition by one or more of the great powers . One of the major criticisms of this law is the confusion caused when some states recognise

4104-670: The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic States (TURKPA) , etc.). Most sovereign states are both de jure and de facto (i.e., they exist both according to law and in practice). However, states which are only de jure are sometimes recognised as being the legitimate government of a territory over which they have no actual control. For example, during

4218-748: 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

4332-539: 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

4446-510: 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

4560-579: 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

4674-663: 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,

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4788-725: 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,

4902-459: 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

5016-523: 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,

5130-621: 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

5244-1094: 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

5358-629: The Second World War , governments-in-exile of several states continued to enjoy diplomatic relations with the Allies , notwithstanding that their countries were under occupation by Axis powers . Other entities may have de facto control over a territory but lack international recognition; these may be considered by the international community to be only de facto states. They are considered de jure states only according to their own law and by states that recognise them. For example, Somaliland

5472-815: 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

5586-792: 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

5700-441: The declarative theory of statehood defines a state as a person in international law if it meets the following criteria: 1) a defined territory; 2) a permanent population; 3) a government and 4) a capacity to enter into relations with other states. According to declarative theory, an entity's statehood is independent of its recognition by other states, as long as the sovereignty was not gained by military force. The declarative model

5814-543: 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

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5928-418: 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 a single comprehensive document, it is said to embody a codified constitution . The Constitution of

6042-581: The "constitutional and legal basis" on which it operated, and it has not accepted the allegation that the "TRNC" courts as a whole lacked independence and/or impartiality". On 3 February 2017, The United Kingdom's High Court stated "There was no duty in the United Kingdom law upon the Government to refrain from recognizing Northern Cyprus. The United Nations itself works with Northern Cyprus law enforcement agencies and facilitates co-operation between

6156-462: The Arusha Accords, and some additional protocols introduced by the transitional government. As required by the Accords, Paul Kagame set up a Constitutional Commission to draft a new permanent Constitution. The Constitution was required to adhere to a set of fundamental principles including equitable power sharing and democracy. The Commission sought to ensure that the draft Constitution was "home-grown", relevant to Rwanda's specific needs and reflected

6270-438: 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 is also its constitution, in that it would define how that organization

6384-456: 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,

6498-411: 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

6612-517: The attribute of every nation". Absolute sovereign immunity is no longer as widely accepted as it has been in the past, and some countries, including the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa, have introduced restrictive immunity by statute, which explicitly limits jurisdictional immunity to public acts, but not private or commercial ones, though there is no precise definition by which public acts can easily be distinguished from private ones. State recognition signifies

6726-477: 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,

6840-434: 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

6954-421: 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

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7068-499: The community that has the intention to inhabit the territory permanently and is capable to support the superstructure of the State, though there is no requirement of a minimum population. The government must be capable of exercising effective control over a territory and population (the requirement known in legal theory as "effective control test") and guarantee the protection of basic human rights by legal methods and policies. The "capacity to enter into relations with other states" reflects

7182-476: The concept of " government-in-exile " is predicated upon that distinction. States are non-physical juridical entities, not organisations of any kind. However, ordinarily, only the government of a state can obligate or bind the state, for example by treaty. Generally speaking, states are durable entities, though they can become extinguished, either through voluntary means or outside forces, such as military conquest. Violent state abolition has virtually ceased since

7296-441: 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

7410-464: 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,

7524-453: The decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be either expressed or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It does not necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations. There are debates over whether states can exist as a fact independent of recognition or whether recognition is one of the facts necessary to bring states into being. No definition

7638-444: 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

7752-404: The effect of recognition and non-recognition. It is the act of recognition that affirms whether a country meets the requirements for statehood and is now subject to international law in the same way that other sovereign states are. State practice relating to the recognition of states typically falls somewhere between the declaratory and constitutive approaches. International law does not require

7866-553: The end of World War II. Because states are non-physical juridical entities, it has been argued that their extinction cannot be due to physical force alone. Instead, the physical actions of the military must be associated with the correct social or judiciary actions for a state to be abolished. The ontological status of the state has been a subject of debate, especially, whether or not the state, being an object that no one can see, taste, touch, or otherwise detect, actually exists. It has been argued that one potential reason as to why

7980-602: The end of the 19th century, almost the entire globe has been divided into sections (countries) with more or less defined borders assigned to different states. Previously, quite large plots of land were either unclaimed or deserted, or inhabited by nomadic peoples that were not organized into states. However, even in modern states, there are large remote areas, such as the Amazon's tropical forests , that are either uninhabited or inhabited exclusively or mainly by indigenous people (and some of them are still not in constant contact). Additionally, there are states where de facto control

8094-416: The entity's degree of independence. Article 3 of the Montevideo Convention declares that political statehood is independent of recognition by other states, and the state is not prohibited from defending itself. A similar opinion about "the conditions on which an entity constitutes a state" is expressed by the European Economic Community Opinions of the Badinter Arbitration Committee , which found that

8208-447: The existence of states has been controversial is because states do not have a place in the traditional Platonist duality of the concrete and the abstract. Characteristically, concrete objects are those that have a position in time and space, which states do not have (though their territories have a spatial position, states are distinct from their territories), and abstract objects have a position in neither time nor space, which does not fit

8322-438: The existence of territory or of an established government." International lawyer Hersch Lauterpacht states that recognition is not merely a formality but an active interpretation in support of any facts. Once made however it cannot be arbitrarily revoked on account of another state's own discretion or internal politics. The constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person of international law if, and only if, it

8436-773: 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

8550-464: The following, regarding constitutive theory: International Law does not say that a State is not in existence as long as it is not recognised, but it takes no notice of it before its recognition. Through recognition only and exclusively a State becomes an International Person and a subject of International Law. Recognition or non-recognition by other states can override declarative theory criteria in cases such as Kosovo and Somaliland . By contrast,

8664-506: The frames of a certain territory, that is its supremacy in the domestic policy and independence in the foreign one. Named after the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, the Westphalian System of state sovereignty, according to Bryan Turner, "made a more or less clear separation between religion and state, and recognized the right of princes "to confessionalize" the state, that is, to determine the religious affiliation of their kingdoms on

8778-487: The international system has surged. Some research suggests that the existence of international and regional organisations, the greater availability of economic aid, and greater acceptance of the norm of self-determination have increased the desire of political units to secede and can be credited for the increase in the number of states in the international system. Harvard economist Alberto Alesina and Tufts economist Enrico Spolaore argue in their book, Size of Nations, that

8892-478: The international system of special internal and external security and legitimization of the dilemma. Recently, the concept of the international community has been formed to refer to a group of States that have established rules, procedures and institutions for the implementation of relations. Thus, the foundation for international law , diplomacy between officially recognized sovereign states, their organizations and formal regimes has been laid. Westphalian sovereignty

9006-456: 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

9120-566: The jurisprudence has developed along the lines of affording immunity from prosecution to foreign states in domestic courts. In The Schooner Exchange v. M'Faddon , Chief Justice John Marshall of the United States Supreme Court wrote that the "perfect equality and absolute independence of sovereigns" has created a class of cases where "every sovereign is understood to waive the exercise of a part of that complete exclusive territorial jurisdiction, which has been stated to be

9234-589: 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

9348-536: The latter change would not come into effect until 2024. They were approved by around 98% of voters. The constitution provides for a two house parliament, an elected President serving seven year terms, and multi-party politics. The constitution also sought to prevent Hutu or Tutsi hegemony over political power. Article 54 states that "political organizations are prohibited from basing themselves on race, ethnic group, tribe, clan, region, sex, religion or any other division which may give rise to discrimination". In general it

9462-402: 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

9576-738: The legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, well before the publication of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws . This Constitution also limited the executive authority of the hetman , and established a democratically elected Cossack parliament called the General Council. However, Orlyk's project for an independent Ukrainian State never materialized, and his constitution, written in exile, never went into effect. Corsican Constitutions of 1755 and 1794 were inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau . The latter introduced universal suffrage for property owners. Sovereign state A sovereign state

9690-604: 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

9804-421: The ontological state of the state is. Realists believe that the world is one of only states and interstate relations and the identity of the state is defined before any international relations with other states. On the other hand, pluralists believe that the state is not the only actor in international relations and interactions between states and the state is competing against many other actors. Another theory of

9918-464: The ontology of the state is that the state is a spiritual, or "mystical entity" with its own being, distinct from the members of the state. The German Idealist philosopher Georg Hegel (1770–1831) was perhaps the greatest proponent of this theory. The Hegelian definition of the state is "the Divine Idea as it exists on Earth". Since the end of World War II, the number of sovereign states in

10032-550: 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

10146-469: The pragmatic principle of cuius regio eius religio [ whose realm, his religion ]." Before 1900, sovereign states enjoyed absolute immunity from the judicial process, derived from the concepts of sovereignty and the Westphalian equality of states . First articulated by Jean Bodin , the powers of the state are considered to be suprema potestas within territorial boundaries. Based on this,

10260-403: 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,

10374-489: The recognition of a country is a political issue. On 2 July 2013, The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that "notwithstanding the lack of international recognition of the regime in the northern area, a de facto recognition of its acts may be rendered necessary for practical purposes. Thus the adoption by the authorities of the "TRNC" of civil, administrative or criminal law measures, and their application or enforcement within that territory, may be regarded as having

10488-696: 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

10602-402: The role of documents in understanding all of social reality. Quasi-abstract objects, such as states, can be brought into being through document acts, and can also be used to manipulate them, such as by binding them by treaty or surrendering them as the result of a war. Scholars in international relations can be broken up into two different practices, realists and pluralists, of what they believe

10716-546: 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

10830-400: 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

10944-430: The same rights and duties based upon the mere fact of their existence as persons under international law. The right of nations to determine their own political status and exercise permanent sovereignty within the limits of their territorial jurisdictions is widely recognized. In political science, sovereignty is usually defined as the most essential attribute of the state in the form of its complete self-sufficiency in

11058-591: 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

11172-514: The sovereignty of the state was subject to limitations both internal (West Germany's federal system and the role of civil society) and external (membership in the European Community and reliance on its alliance with the United States and NATO for its national security). Although the terms "state" and "government" are often used interchangeably, international law distinguishes between a non-physical state and its government; and in fact,

11286-407: The supposed characteristics of states either, since states do have a temporal position (they can be created at certain times and then become extinct at a future time). Therefore, it has been argued that states belong to a third category, the quasi-abstract, that has recently begun to garner philosophical attention, especially in the area of Documentality , an ontological theory that seeks to understand

11400-619: 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

11514-536: The turnout on voting day was 87%. The constitution was overwhelmingly accepted, with 93% voting in favour. This constitution, among other things, changed the country's official name from "Rwandese Republic" to "Republic of Rwanda". A referendum on the Rwandan constitution was held on 18 December 2015. The amendments would allow President Paul Kagame to run for a third term in office in 2017 , as well as shortening presidential terms from seven to five years, although

11628-710: The two parts of the island". and revealed that the co-operation between the United Kingdom police and law agencies in Northern Cyprus is legal. Turkish Cypriots gained "observer status" in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) , and their representatives are elected in the Assembly of Northern Cyprus. As a country, Northern Cyprus became an observer member in various international organizations (the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC),

11742-511: The views of the entire population. They sent questionnaires to civil groups across the country and rejected offers of help from the international community, except for financial assistance. The draft constitution was released in 2003; it was approved by the Parliament, and was then put to a referendum in May of that year. The government gave the referendum a high profile, which meant that ultimately 95% of eligible adults registered to vote and

11856-657: 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

11970-468: 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

12084-652: 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

12198-598: 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

12312-441: Was expressed in the 1933 Montevideo Convention . A "territory" in the international law context consists of land territory, internal waters, territorial sea, and air space above the territory. There is no requirement on strictly delimited borders or minimum size of the land, but artificial installations and uninhabitable territories cannot be considered as territories sufficient for statehood. The term "permanent population" defines

12426-617: 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

12540-553: Was men who had organised the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and they were disproportionately the victims. The constitution reserved 24 of the 80 seats for women and this did not preclude other women from competing for the remaining seats in the lower house. This lower house has had nearly half of its members being female. Six places are also reserved for women in the upper house. According to Human Rights Watch , this clause along with later laws enacted by Parliament effectively make Rwanda

12654-404: 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,

12768-403: Was routinely deployed to determine that certain people in the world were "uncivilized", and lacking organised societies. That position was reflected and constituted in the notion that their "sovereignty" was either completely lacking or at least of an inferior character when compared to that of the "civilized" people". Lassa Oppenheim said, "There exists perhaps no conception the meaning of which

12882-665: 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,

12996-517: Was widely withheld when the white minority seized power and attempted to form a state along the lines of Apartheid South Africa , a move that the United Nations Security Council described as the creation of an "illegal racist minority régime". In the case of Northern Cyprus, recognition was withheld from a state created in Northern Cyprus. International law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence, and

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