And if he is so scornful of the rights of states, why not advocate a different sort of constitution that he could more sincerely support??

But though the Southern States, when drafting a constitution to unite themselves, narrowed the difference to this fine point by omitting to assert the right to secede, the fact remained that by seceding from the Union they had already acted on the concept that it was composed primarily of sovereign states.

Six of these states then adopted a constitution and declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America.

The Articles of Confederation, formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement among the 13 founding states that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution.

It was an era of constitution writing — most states were busy at the task — and leaders felt the new nation must have a written constitution, even though other nations did not.

On June 12, 1776, a day after appointing a committee to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress resolved to appoint a committee of 13 to prepare a draft of a constitution for a union of the states.

) Hilton also claims a Roman Catholic monarch would therefore be unable to be crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury and points to the examples of European states that have similar religious provisions for their monarchs: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, whose constitutions compel their monarchs to be Lutherans, the Netherlands, the constitution of which insists its monarchs be members of the Protestant House of Orange, and Belgium, which has a constitution that provides for the succession to be through Roman Catholic houses.

" Jefferson " thus set forth a radical doctrine of states ' rights that effectively undermined the constitution.

Within states, whether sovereign or federated, a constitution defines the principles upon which the state is based, the procedure in which laws are made and by whom.

An example from the constitutional law of sovereign states would be a provincial government in a federal state trying to legislate in an area exclusively enumerated to the federal government in the constitution, such as ratifying a treaty.

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 is ab initio, that is, from inception, not from the date of the finding.

Some states enacted reception statutes as legislative statutes, while other states received the English common law through provisions of the state's constitution, and some by court decision.

The constitution states that, " the islands enjoy financial autonomy, freely draw up and manage their budgets ".

* Massachusetts is a Commonwealth, declaring itself as such in its constitution, which states that " The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good.

The ancient Roman Catholic tradition overcame this idea with the doctrine of the " Two Swords " and so achieved, for the very first time, a balanced constitution for states.

On 4 December 1976, the republic became a monarchy — the Central African Empire — with the promulgation of the imperial constitution and the proclamation of the president as Emperor Bokassa I.

On September 11, 1952, Emperor Haile Selassie ratified the constitution.

The other detailed regulation of the Emperor's duties is laid down in article 7 of the constitution, where it is stated that the " Emperor with the advice and approval of the Cabinet, shall perform the following acts in matters of state on behalf of the people:

A new constitution described the Emperor as " the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty ", whose rights included to sanction and promulgate laws, to execute them and to exercise " supreme command of the Army and the Navy ".

The Emperor of Japan is defined as a symbol, not head, of state by the post-war constitution ( contrasting with the former divine status ) but is treated as an imperial head of state under diplomatic protocol ( even ranking above kings ) and retains Shinto mystique.

* 1931 – Emperor Haile Selassie I signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.

The first Roman Emperor, Augustus, attempted to manufacture the appearance of a constitution that still governed the Empire.

* July 16 – Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.

* December 25 – Emperor Charles IV promulgates the Golden Bull, a sort of medieval constitution for the Holy Roman Empire.

The Japanese constitution prescribed that " the Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty, and exercises them, according to the provisions of the present Constitution " ( article 4 ) and that " The Emperor has the supreme command of the Army and the Navy " ( article 11 ).

Under Article 73 the new constitution was formally submitted to the Imperial Diet by the Emperor, through an imperial rescript issued on 20 June.

The constitution asserts that the Emperor is merely a symbol and that he derives " his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power " ( Article 1 ).

Progressive, left, center-left and peace movement related individuals and organizations, as well as the opposition parties, labor and youth groups advocate keeping ( and even strengthening ) the existing constitution in these areas, while right-leaning, nationalist and / or conservative groups and individuals advocate changes to increase the prestige of the Emperor ( though not granting him political powers ) and to allow a more aggressive stance of the self-defense force, e. g. by turning it officially into a military.

Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan, was defined as the Head of State and the Generalissimo of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces according to the constitution of 1889.

The constitution formalized much of the Empire's political structure and gave many responsibilities and powers to the Emperor.

These shifts in power were made possible by the ambiguity and imprecision of the Meiji constitution, particularly as regarded the position of the Emperor in relation to the constitution.

With no precedent to follow, the Empire was faced with the prospect of a period of more than twelve years without a strong executive, as, under the constitution, Pedro II would not attain his majority and begin exercising authority as Emperor until 2 December 1843.

On April 2, 1849, a delegation of the National Assembly met with King Frederick William IV in Berlin and offered him the crown of the Emperor under this new constitution.

Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian granted a constitution that settled internal conflicts ( Erste Zwietracht ) in 1340.

The discontent reached its height when the Emperor Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor ( February 27, 1673 ) suspended the Hungarian constitution, appointed Johan Caspar Ampringen dictator, deprived 450 Protestant clergy of their living and condemned 67 more to the galleys.

In the United States, the power of the federal judiciary to review and invalidate unconstitutional acts of the federal executive branch is stated in the constitution, Article III sections 1 and 2: " The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.

Article 13 of the South Korean constitution provides that no citizen shall be shall be placed in double jeopardy.

The constitution act stipulates that: " Before assuming office, a person appointed to be Governor shall take the Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance and the Oath or Affirmation of Office in the presence of the Chief Justice or another Judge of the Supreme Court.

Should the French return to reimpose slavery, Article 5 of the constitution declared: " At the first shot of the warning gun, the towns shall be destroyed and the nation will rise in arms.

The amended constitution asserts that while it is the entitlement of " every person born in the island of Ireland … to be part of the Irish Nation " and to hold Irish citizenship, " a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island.

Nehru specifically wrote Article 44 of the Indian constitution under the Directive Principles of State Policy which states: ' The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

In the new bill the territory of Nebraska was extended north all the way to the 49th parallel, and any decisions on slavery were to be made " when admitted as a state or states, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission.

Article 11 of the constitution repeats that " the DPRK shall conduct all activities under the leadership of the KWP ".

The 1937 constitution did not mention the king ; but nor did it state that the President was head of state, saying rather that the President " shall take precedence over all other persons in the State ".

The constitution also establishes that the monarchy is hereditary following a " regular order of primogeniture and representation: earlier line shall precede older ; within the same line, closer degree shall precede more distant ; within the same degree, male shall precede female ; and within the same sex, older shall precede the younger ".

Subsequently the constitution was revised to provide that where the Regent and the Authorised Person are not in agreement on any matter, the matter shall be referred to Bantfwabenkhosi ( princes ) and chiefs.

*: Article 25 of the 1991 constitution specifies that a " person of Bulgarian origin shall acquire Bulgarian citizenship through a facilitated procedure.

*: Articles 19 and 23 of the constitution provides, " Every person of I-Kiribati descent ... shall ... become or have and continue to have thereafter the right to become a citizen of Kiribati .... Every person of I-Kiribati descent who does not become a citizen of Kiribati on Independence Day ... shall, at any time thereafter, be entitled upon making application in such manner as may be prescribed to be registered as a citizen of Kiribati.

*: The Rwandan constitution provides that " ll persons originating from Rwanda and their descendants shall, upon their request, be entitled to Rwandan nationality.

Also, Chapter I, Article 2 of the ROC constitution states that " The sovereignty of the Republic of China shall reside in the whole body of citizens.