CONSTITUTION

In public law. The organic and fundamental law of a nation or state, which may be written or unwritten, es- tablishing the character and conception of its government, laying the basic principles to which its internal life is to be conformed, organizing the government, and regulating, distributing, and limiting the functions of its different departments, and prescribing the extent and manner of the exercise of sover- eign powers. In a more general sense, any fundamental or important law or edict; as the Novel Con- stitutions of Justinian; the Constitutions of Clarendon. In American law. The written instru- ment agreed upon by the people of the Union or of a particular state, as the absolute rule of action and decision for all departments and officers of the government in respect to all the points covered by it, which must control until it shall be changed by the authority which established it, and in opposition to which any act or ordinance of any such de- partment or officer is null and void. Cooley, Const. Lim. 3.

An exemplification under the great seal of the enrolment of letters patent. Co. Litt. 225. A certificate which the clerk of the pipe and auditors of the exchequer make at the request of any person who intends to plead or move in the court for the discharge of anything; and the effect of it is, the cer- tifying what constat (appears) upon record touching the matter in question.

The fundamental law of a state, directing the principles upon which the government is founded, and regulating the exercise of the sovereign powers, directing to what bodies or persons those powers shall be confided and the manner of their exercise. An established form of government; a system of laws and customs. Constitution, in the former law of the European continent, signified as much as decree, a decree of importance, especially ecclesiastical decrees. The decrees of the Roman emperors referring to the jus circa sacra, contained in the code of Justinian, have been repeatedly collected and called the Con- stitutions. The famous bull Unigenitus was usually called in France the Constitution. Comprehensive laws or decrees have been called constitutions; thus, the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, which is the penal code decreed by Charles V. for Germany, the Constitutions of Clarendon (q. v.). In political law the word constitution came to be used more and more for the fundamentals of a government, the laws and usages which give it its characteristic fea- ture. We find, thus, former English writers speak of the constitution of the Turkish empire. These fundamental laws and customs appeared to our race especially important where they limited the power and action of the different branches of gov- ernment; and it came thus to pass that by constitu- tion was meant especially the fundamental law of a state in which the citizen enjoys a high degree of civil liberty; and, as it is equally necessary to guard against the power of the executive in monarchies, a period arrived-namely, the first half of the pres- ent century-when in Europe, and especially on the continent, the term constitutional government came to be used in contradistinction to absolutism. We now mean by the term constitution, in com- mon parlance, the fundamental law of a free coun- try, which characterizes the organism of the coun- try and secures the rights of the citizen and deter- mines his main duties as a freeman. Sometimes, indeed, the word constitution has been used in recent times for what otherwise is generally called

The act or process of constituting; the action of enacting, establishing, or appointing; enactment; establishment; formation. The state of being; that form of being, or structure and connection of parts, which constitutes and characterizes a system or body; natural condition; structure; texture; conformation. The physical constitution of the sun. Sir J. Herschel. The agregate of all one's inherited physical qualities; the aggregate of the vital powers of an individual, with refernce to ability to endure hardship, resist disease, etc.; as, a robust constitution. Our constitutions have never been enfeebled by the vices or luxuries of the oid world. Story. The aggregate of mental qualities; temperament. He defended himself with . . . less passion than was expected from his constitution. Clarendon. The fundamental, organic law or principles of government of men, embodied in written documents, or implied in the institutions and usages of the country or society; also, a written instrument embodying such organic law, and laying down fundamental rules and principles for the conduct of affairs. Our constitution had begun to exist in times when statesmen were not much accustomed to frame exact definitions. Macaulay. An authoritative ordinance, regulation or enactment; especially, one made by a Roman emperor, or one affecting ecclesiastical doctrine or disipline; as, the constitutions of Justinian. The positive constutions of our own churches. Hooker. A constitution of Valentinian addressed to Olybrius, then prefect of Rome, for the regulation of the conduct of advocates. George Long. Apostolic constitutions. See under Apostolic.

The supreme law of some countries, such as Australia, Ireland, and the United States.

The act, or process of setting something up, or establishing something; the composition or structure of such a thing; its makeup. | The formal or informal system of primary principles and laws that regulates a government or other institutions. | A legal document describing such a formal system. | A document issued by a religious authority serving to promulgate some particular church laws or doctrines. | A person's physical makeup or temperament, especially in respect of robustness. | The general health of a person.