Evolution of Constitutions: Analyzing Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Concepts, Diapositivas de Derecho Constitucional

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Concept &

Basic

contents

Constitution Concept & Basic

Contents

• (^) Constitution Concept Evolution
• (^) Concepts of Constitution
• (^) Formal an Material Constitution
• (^) Democratic Constitution Basic Contents

• The concept of a Constitution is not static and inmutable and is therefore subject to revision, evolution and change.

• In Europe fundamentally three different historical periods of Constitution Concept Evolution (Fioravanti)

• Constitution of the Ancients,
• classical period of the Greek polis
• main purpose: combat tyranny
• articulate a project of social and political discipline

on the virtue of citizens

• Avoid the stasis through eunomics and isonomics.

• Constitution of the Ancients,

Pericles – Funeral Speech (Tuclides, 430 b.C.)

• (^) "... Our form of does not imitate the laws of neighboring

states. On the contrary, we are rather a model to others.

Our form of government is called a democracy because its

administration is in the hands, not of a few, but of the

whole people. In the settling of private disputes, everyone

is equal before the law. Election to public office is made on

the basis of ability, not on the basis of membership to a

particular class.

• Constitution of the Ancients,
• (^) But in public affairs, we take great care not to break law

because of the deep respect we have for them. We give

obedience to the men who hold public office from year to

year.

• (^) And we pay special regard to those laws that are for the

protection of the oppressed and to all the unwritten laws

that we know bring disgrace upon the transgressor when

they are broken.

• Medieval constitution
• Progressive power concentration on the King.
• An absolutist state.
• No limits to royal power

• Modern constitution
• Limit power
• Control power
• Organize power

Declaration of Human and Civic

Rights (1789)

• Art. 16 : Any society in which no provision is made for guaranteeing rights or for the separation of powers, has no Constitution.

Concepts of Constitution

• (^) There are three concepts of the Constitution , according to the different conceptions that serve as a basis for them. (García Pelayo):
• (^) Rational normative concept: Constitution as a rule
• (^) Traditional historical concept: Constitution as a historical result
• (^) Sociological concept: Constitution as an existing social reality

• Rational normative concept: Constitution as a rule
• (^) The constitution is a rule, a normative complex established by democratic constituent power in a single process. (legitimacy)
• (^) Normally written Constitution
• (^) The fundamental functions of the state are contained in a total, exhaustive and systematic manner in the Constitution
• (^) The constitution set the division of democratic powers and the guarantee of rights. The institutions and relations between them are established by the Constitution.

• Rational normative concept: Constitution as a rule
• Article 9 SC
• 1. Citizens and public authorities are bound by the Constitution and all other legal provisions.

• Rational normative concept: Constitution as a rule
• (^) The “Constitution‟s pre-eminence as the supreme statute” (STC 54/1983, of 21 June, Ground 2, and, for an even earlier instance, STC 16/1982, of 28 April, Ground 1), as expressly declared by Article 9.1 CE, relates to the fact that the Constitution itself is the result of the sovereign nation‟s determination, by way of a single entity, the Spanish people, in whom such sovereignty is vested, and from whom the powers of the State therefore emanate (Article 1.2 CE).
• (^) This has to be conceived as the entire array of institutions and bodies that exercise public powers throughout the entire territory of Spain, so it therefore also includes the Autonomous Communities (STC 35/1982, of 14 June, Ground 2, and many subsequent decisions in the same vein). - (^) Constitutional Court judgment 259/2015, of 2 December 2015.