Teacher:Mekhaneg Abdallah
Level: 1st year
Academic year:2023/2024 
LECTURE 3:The Constitution 
1- Definition 
A constitution can be defined in two ways: either with a narrow or a wide meaning. In a narrow sense they have described a constitution as: 
‘. . . a document having a special legal status which sets out the framework and principal functions of the organs of government within the state and declares the principles or rules by which those organs must operate.’ 
In a broader sense of the term: 
‘. . . the whole system of government of a country, the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government.’ 
In its frst report in July 2001, the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution recognized the difficulty in defining the term ‘constitution’ and put forward the following definition: 
‘Our working definition of a constitution is that it is the set of laws, rules and practices that create the basic institutions of the state and its component and related parts, and stipulate the powers of those institutions and the relationship between the different institutions and between those institutions and the individual.’ 
For present purposes, therefore, we may conclude that a constitution is simply a set of rules and principles that govern the organisation and structure of the state which the governing institutions must adhere to. As will be indicated below, these constitutional rules will almost invariably be found in a single written document entitled ‘The Constitution’, although sometimes – as in the United Kingdom – these rules are located other than in a single specific constitutional document 
2-The contents of a constitution 
What will a constitution contain? The exact contents of a state constitution will differ from state to state. It must be remembered that constitutions exist in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although by their nature, democratic constitutions should follow the principles of constitutionalism 
As an introduction or foreword, a preamble is found in many state constitutions. It tends to be declaratory in nature and identifies the people as the constituent (sovereign) power from which the moral authority and legitimacy of the constitution derives. 
For example, in the Algerian Constitution (2016) it is stated at the end of preamble that: 
The pride of the Algerian people, their sacrifices, sense of responsibility and inveterate adherence to freedom and social justice reflect the optimum guarantees of their respect for the principles of this Constitution which they shall adopt and bequeath to the future generations, the successors of the pioneers of freedom and the founders of the free society.