FrontSources of the Constitution
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- Ellaspecial
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Ellaspecial Tue 08 Nov 2016, 1:55 pm
Sources of the Constitution:
By source, we mean the point of origin. Every thing originates from and of a particular point. Therefore, sources of constitution will mean the point of which the constitution originates. The idea here is that Laws and principles do not' come entirely as accident. They are carefully articulated and critically evaluated before they would be presented as a guiding principle to social existence and interactions. It is quite difficult to ascertain the origin of all the laws governing a people. This is because some of the laws are those of natural justice and therefore could be said to originate from nature. That is, mere existence in nature is conditioned by certainprinciple that is not easily explained in terms of origin. However, there are established sources of every constitution. They, include:
(a) Customs and Conventions
The customs, traditions and values of a people give essence to their customary laws which are accepted as binding on the people, such customs as the rule on incest has become part of the constitution or most countries deriving from the customs of the people, which declared in incest as an abomination.Murder as a punishable offence was customary to ,the people before the advent of modern constitutionalism. So were theft and some other cultural Practices on social existence and community life. Customs derive from cultural practices and observances of the people which may not be written down. Some have however found themselves in the written pages of the constitution. In
modern governance system, it is customary to decide 'cases' or settle issues by majority opinion. This is customary to democracy. In the traditional Ibo society, issues of general concern were settled by majority vote in the village assembly. This customary practice of the people is today the pillar and anchor point of modern democracy.
(b) Legislation
Legislation connotes the act or process of law making by the legislature of any country. The legislature of any country arc the elected representatives of the people in parliament. In Nigeria, the legislature is the national assembly comprising of the, upper legislative chambers called the senate and the lower chamber called the house of representatives, These legislative chamber or national assembly make laws for order, security and good governance of the country.Laws made by these, 'houses' are referred to as legislation: In the States, the various houses of assembly the legislature of the States. The State houses of assembly make laws for the States and they are called legislation.
These laws made by the national assembly are the major laws in the constitution. By implication, this is a major source of the Nigeria constitution. The legislature abrogates and also amends the constitutional provisions where necessary and when expedient.
(c) Judicial Precedence or Case Laws
Precedence connotes what came before. That is the act of existing or coming before in time. In the judiciary, disputes are settled, cases are tried and judgment given.In any particular case, a decision reached in a court of law is established as a parameter for decision in a similar case in future. Thus, if Eddet is sentenced to six months in prison for the theft of a goat, Ayo will also get six months for committing that same offence. This is to say that the measure applied in Eddet's case must be the measure to be applied in Ayo's case provided they happened under the same circumstances. The reason here is that the court had already set a precedent that
must be followed' under . similar or the same circumstances. By deciding a particular, case, the judiciary has made a law. In our analogy, out of the Eddet goat theft case, the court has stamped the law that any body that stole a goat will be sentenced to six month in prison provided that the circumstances under which he stole was the same as in Eddet's case. This is called case laws or judicial precedent.
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