Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Constitution of the United States of America, the fundamental law of the U.S. federal system of government and a landmark document of the Western world. The oldest written national constitution in use, the Constitution defines
In the broadest sense a constitution is a body of rules governing the affairs of an organized group. A parliament, a church congregation, a social club, or a trade union may operate under the terms of a formal written document labeled a constitution.
constitution, the body of doctrines and practices that form the fundamental organizing principle of a political state. In some cases, such as the United States, the constitution is a specific written document.
Constitution of the United States of America - Provisions, Amendments, Framers: The Constitution concisely organizes the country’s basic political institutions. The main text comprises seven articles. Article I vests all legislative powers in the Congress—the House of Representatives and the Senate.
In more than two centuries of operation, the United States Constitution has proved itself a dynamic document. It has served as a model for other countries, its provisions being widely imitated in national constitutions throughout the world.
The British constitution includes, for example, the Bill of Rights (1689), the Act of Settlement (1701), the Parliament Act of 1911, the successive Representation of the People Acts (which extended suffrage), the statutes dealing with the structure of the courts, and various local government acts.
Commerce clause, provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8) that authorizes Congress ‘to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes.’ The clause serves as the legal foundation of much of the government’s regulatory power.
Constitutionalism, doctrine that a government’s authority is determined by a body of laws or constitution. Although constitutionalism is sometimes regarded as a synonym for limited government, that is only one interpretation and by no means the most prominent one historically.
Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, adopted as a single unit in 1791. They constitute a collection of mutually reinforcing guarantees of individual rights and of limitations on federal and state governments.
Constitution - Social Contract, Rights, Government: The theoretical foundations of modern constitutionalism were laid down in the great works on the social contract, especially those of the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke in the 17th century and the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 18th.