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Summary Constitutional Law 2023 Exam Review Document

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A huge & full recap of the course including reading summaries, lectures, and working groups. New, relevant, and complete. Also, there are notes taken from the last Q&A session right before the exam.

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  • February 29, 2024
  • 46
  • 2022/2023
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Constitutional Law 2023, June

ALL WEEKS EXAM RECAP DOCUMENT

,WEEK 1:

- Bodin: State power (public power) is indivisible, and it belongs to the state.
It is not the ruler’s.
o He invented the concept of sovereignty. What the state enacts is
sovereign.
- Hobbes:
o Religious & political powers must belong together.
o LEVIATHAN: Commonwealth under which the people live thanks to
the immortal God.
 In this book, Hobbes argues humans have free consciousness
thus the state cannot interfere with anybody’s faith.
 Faith is PERSONAL. The state can prescribe a certain opinion,
but THIS CANNOT BE THE TRUTH.
 The truth is personal, and public order isn’t about the
truth.
o Mathematics & science was used to explain human sciences.
o UNLIKE ARISTOTLE, he thought humans were not social animals.
Being conscious doesn’t make humans superior to other animals.
Constant state of fear (of dying).
 In order to overcome this fear  STATE.
 SOCIAL CONTRACT BETWEEN CITIZENS: Every
state should appoint a ruler, ‘all of the sovereign’s
actions are MY actions as well’. This is how we can be
secure.
o Hobbes claims that humans give up their freedom to be a part of the
state. This is to protect their lives.
- Locke:
o Father of liberalism
o In a state of nature, people would live in peace in villages & smaller
communities.

, o Under such circumstances, ECONOMIC GROWTH isn’t possible.
State is necessary for money, and money is needed for economic
growth.
o Why do we want to be a part of the state?
 Protection of…
 LIFE
 LIBERTY
 BELONGINGS
 SOCIAL CONTRACT WITH THE STATE: If the states
overstep these boundaries, the citizen must resist the state. If
the state breaks the social contract, the citizens can as well
break it and establish a new state.
o Invention of separation of powers: legislative, executive, federative
(ability to enter relations with other states).
- Montesquieu:
o He believed in the pluralist nature of governing: There isn’t one
correct way to govern a state.
o Trias Politica, a mistakenly interpreted way of the British legal
system back in those days.
- Rousseau:
o ‘Man is born free but finds himself chained everywhere’. When
there is no government, we ARE NOT FREE. There are still the laws
of nature that bind us.
o Being bound by the laws of the state doesn’t take away our freedom,
freedoms exist within the legal order.
o Laws must be enacted while all citizens take part in the legislative
process. La volonté générale is crucial in a truly just system. Big
states cannot be just states for this reason (e.g: France)
o Being a citizen involves conversion: We are converted to each other
with the love of the collective and the state.  TRUE CITIZEN
o SOCIAL CONTRACT BETWEEN CITIZENS
- Sièyes:
o Equality of all citizens
o He was a priest thus he already believed in REPRESENTATION.

, o When a state is HUGE  La volonté totale. The general will
CANNOT be reached in a huge state.
o The representatives represent THE WHOLE PEOPLE, not only their
voters.


 CONSTITUENT POWER: This power ENACTS the constitution.
 CONSTITUTED POWER: This power has effect AFTER THE
ENACTMENT.

Readings / Chapter 2

- The constitution of the UK is ‘evolutionary in character’.
- External vs internal sovereignty
o External: A state could exercise control over its territory & population
without state interference.
o Internal: Public authority itself is WITHIN the state.
- If the preamble has remarks such as ‘we, the people’ this most likely hints
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY.
o POPULAR vs NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY: People are more
concrete than a ‘nation’. Nation is a rather abstract term, not
necessarily having to correspond to the current population of a
country. People can act on their own meanwhile a nation doesn’t
have such a capacity. A chance of REFERANDUM could be excluded
in a country with national sovereignty: National
REPRESENTATIVES MUST ACT IN A SYSTEM WITH
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY.
- Parliamentary sovereignty & the UK
o Acts of parliament are the highest laws in the country.
o The Queen/King is present in the parliament because bills are adopted
by Parliament and then receive royal ‘assent’ from the monarch.
o Legislative supremacy: The acts of parliament CANNOT be
invalidated by any authority.

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