Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

CONSTRUCTIO, ETC.

CONSTITUTIO

259

ment, construction, and interpretation, and of the validity of legal enactments as tested by the criterion of conformity to the funda mental law. 3. A constitutional law is one which is con sonant to, and agrees with, the constitution; one which is not in violation of any provision of the constitution of the particular state. CONSTITUTIONES. Laws promulgat ed, i. e., enacted, by the Roman Emperor. They were of various kinds, namely, the fol lowing: (1) Edicta; (2) decreta; (3) r&- gcripta, called also " epistolce." Sometimes they were general, and intended to form a precedent for other like cases; at other times they were special, particular, or individual, {personales,) and not intended to form a prec edent. The emperor had this power of irre sponsible enactment by virtue of a certain lex regia, whereby he was made the fountain of justice and of mercy. Brown. Constitutiones tempore posteriores potiores sunt his qusB ipsas praecesser unt. Dig. 1, 4, 4. Later laws prevail over those which preceded them. CONSTITUTIONS OP CLAREN DON. See CLARENDON. CONSTITUTOR. In the civil law. One who, by a simple agreement, becomes respon sible for the payment of another's debt. CONSTITUTUM. In the civil law. An agreement to pay a subsisting debt which ex ists without any stipulation, whether of the promisor or another party. It differs from a stipulation in that it must be for an existing debt. Du Cange. Constitutum esse earn domum uni cuique nostrum debere existimari, ubi quisque sedes et tabulas haberet, suar umque rerum constitutionem fecisset. It is settled that that is to be considered the home of each one of us where he may have his habitation and account-books, and where he may have made an establishment of his business. Dig. 50, 16, 203. CONSTRAINT. This term is held to be exactly equivalent with "restraint." 2 Tenn. Ch. 427. In Scotch, law. Constraint means du ress. CONSTRUCT. To build; erect; put to gether; make ready for use. Constructio legis non facit injuriam. The construction of the law (a construction

An establishment or settlement. Used of controversies settled by the parties without a trial. Calvin. A sum paid according to agreement. Du Cange. In old English law. An ordinance or statute. A provision of a statute. <3ONSTITUTIO DOTIS. Establishment of dower. CONSTITUTION. In public law. The organic and fundamental law of a nation or state, which may be written or unwritten, es tablishing the character and conception of its government, laying the basic principles to which its internal life is to be conformed, organizing the government, and regulating, distributing, and limiting the functions of its different departments, and prescribing the extent and manner of the exercise of sover eign powers. In a more general sense, any fundamental or important law or edict; as the Xovel Con stitutions of Justinian; the Constitutions of Clarendon. In American law. The written instru ment agreed upon by the people of the Union or of a particular state, as the absolute rule of action and decision for all departments and officers of the government in respect to all the points covered by it, which must control until it shall be changed by the authority which established it, and in opposition to which any act or ordinance of any such de partment or officer is null and void. Cooley, Const. Lim. 3. CONSTITUTIONAL. Consistent with the constitution; authorized by the constitu tion; not conflicting with any provision of the constitution or fundamental law of the state. Dependent upon a constitution, or se cured or regulated by a constitution; as "constitutional monarchy," "constitutional rights." CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. 1. That branch of the public law of a state which treats of the organization and frame of gov ernment, the organs and powers of sovereign ty, the distribution of political and govern mental authorities and functions, the funda mental principles which are to regulate the relations of government and subject, and which prescribes generally the plan and method according to which the public affairs af the state are to be administered. 2. That department of the science of law which treats of constitutions, their establish

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