Summary Constitutional Law 2023 Exam Review Document
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Course
Comparative Constitutional Law (RGPST50110)
Institution
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
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.
Rechtsgeleerdheid: Internationaal en Europees recht
Comparative Constitutional Law (RGPST50110)
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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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