constitutional conventions
Unwritten political norms
Constitutional conventions are unwritten rules and practices that guide how a government operates, though they lack the force of law.
In countries like the United Kingdom, conventions fill gaps left by the absence of a formal written constitution: By convention, the monarch grants royal assent to legislation passed by Parliament.
Breaking a convention may provoke political crisis but not legal penalty.
Separately, a constitutional convention is a formal assembly convened to draft or amend a constitution: The Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787 produced the U.S. Constitution.
- executive powerGovernment's enforcement capacity
- Magna CartaCharter curbing royal authority
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
- legislative processHow statutes get enacted
- democracyRule by the people
transparency · judicial review · binding precedent · separation of powers · unwritten rules · gentlemen's agreement · accountability · hung parliament · checks and balances · rule of law · jurisprudence · federalism · legitimacy · societal values · delegates · electoral commissions · subsidiarity · codification
- constitutional lawBill of Rights, First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment
- California governmentlegislature, executive branch, judicial branch, governor, lieutenant governor
- constitutionsbill of rights, clause, clauses, preamble, provisions
- Kentucky historyDaniel Boone, Henry Clay, statehood, Cumberland Gap, border state
- state lawstate statutes, state laws, state constitutions, state code, state legislatures
- Canadian Constitution1867, 1982, division of powers, federal powers, Confederation
constitutional conventionsstatutes
Formally enacted laws
legislation · constitutional amendments · legal mandates · written constitution · legal code
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