KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

CONSTITUTIONAL

CONSTABLE

253

constitutes another his agent or invests the other with authority to act for him. It is also used in the language of politics, as a correlative to "representative," the con stituents of a legislator being those whom he represents and whose interests he is to care for in public affairs; usually the electors of his district. CONSTTTUERE. Lat To appoint, con stitute, establish, ordain, or undertake. Used principally in ancient powers of attorney, and now supplanted by the English word "constitute." CONSTITOTMUS. A Latin term, signi fying we constitute or appoint. CONSTITUTED AUTHORITIES. Of ficers properly appointed under the consti tution for the government of the people. CONSTITUTIO. In the civil law. An imperial ordinance or constitution, distin guished from Lex, Senatus-Consultum, and other kinds of law and having its effect from the sole will of the emperor. 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. CONSTITUTIO DOTIS. Establishment of dower. CONSTITUTION. In public law. The organic and fundamental law of a nation or state, which may be written or unwritten, establishing 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 sovereign powers. In a more general sense, any fundamental or important law or edict; as the Novel Con stitutions of Justinian; the Constitutions of Clarendon. In American law. The written instru ment agreed upon by the people of the Un ion or of a particular state, as the absolute rule of action and decision for all depart ments and officers of the government in re spect to all the points covered by it, which must control until it shall be changed by the authority which established it, and in oppo sition to which any act or ordinance of any such department or officer is null and void. Cooley, Const Llm. 3. with the constitution; authorized by the constitu tion; not conflicting with any provision of CONSTITUTIONAL. Consistent

duties are similar to those of the sheriff, though his powers are less and his jurisdic tion smaller. He is to preserve the pub lic peace, execute the process of magistrates' courts, and of some other tribunals, serve writs, attend the sessions of the criminal courts, have the custody of juries, and dis charge other functions sometimes assigned to him by the local law or by statute. Comm. v. Deacon, 8 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 47; Leavitt v. Leavitt, 135 Mass. 191; Allor v. Wayne County, 43 Mich. 76, 4 N. W. 492. —Constable of a castle. In English law. An officer having charge of a castle; a warden, or keeper; otherwise called a "castellain."— Constable of England. (Called, also, "Mar shal.") His office consisted in the care of the common peace of the realm in deeds of arms and matters of war. Lamb. Const. 4.—Con stable of Scotland. An officer who was for merly entitled to command all the king's armies in the absence of the king, and to take cogni sance of all crimes committed within four miles of the king's person or of parliament, the privy council, or any general convention of the states of the kingdom. The office was hereditary in the family of Errol, and was abolished by the 20 Geo. III. c. 43. Bell; Ersk. Inst. 1, 3, 37. —Constable of the exchequer. An officer mentioned in Fleta, lib. 2, c. 31.—High, con stable of England, lord. His office has been disused (except only upon great and solemn oc casions, as the coronation, or the like) since the attainder of Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, in the reign of Henry VII. CONSTABLEWICK. In English law. The territorial jurisdiction of a constable; as bailiwick Is of a bailiff or sheriff. 5 Nev. ft M. 261. CONSTABTTLARIUS. An officer of horse; an officer having charge of foot or horse; a naval commander; an officer hav ing charge of military affairs generally. Spelman. CONSTAT. It is clear or evident; it ap pears ; it is certain; there is no doubt Non constat, it does not appear. A certificate which the clerk of the pipe and auditors of the exchequer made, at the request of any person who intended to plead or move In that court, for the discharge of anything. The effect of it was the certifying what appears (constat) upon record, touch ing the matter in question. Wharton. In French law. An affidavit made by a huissier, set ting forth the appearance, form, quality, color, etc., of any article upon which a suit depends. Arg. Fr. Merc. Law, 554. CONSTATE. To establish, constitute, or ordain. "Constating instruments" of a cor poration are its charter, organic law, or the grant of powers to it. See examples of the use of the term, Green's Brice, Ultra Vires, p. 39; Ackerman v. Halsey, 37 N. J. Eq. 363. CONSTITUENT. A word used as a cor relative to "attorney," to denote one who CONSTAT D'HUISSIER.