What is Constitutional Law used for?

The branch of law responsible for analyzing and controlling the fundamental laws that govern the State is known as constitutional law. Its object of study is the form of government and the regulation of public powers, both in their relationship with citizens and between their different bodies.

More specifically, we can still determine that constitutional law is in charge of carrying out the study of what is the theory of human rights, that of power, that of the Constitution and finally that of the State.

Political power is made up of the institutions to which society has granted a monopoly on the use of violence. In other words, political power has the coercive capacity to compel compliance with its imperative mandates through legitimate violence, as long as this use is necessary. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to Constitutional Law.

Constitutional law, which belongs to public law, is based on the Constitution, a legal-political text that bases the ordering of political power. The Constitution is the supreme rule of a country, so it prevails over any other regulation or law.

The Constitution is characterized by its rigidity, since it can only be modified under certain exceptional conditions that are included in its own text. The constitutional structure includes a preamble, a dogmatic part (with fundamental procedural and substantive rights) and an organic part (with the creation of constituted powers).

In the case, for example, of the Spanish Constitution, which dates back to 1978, it is made up of a preamble, a dogmatic part that is made up of the preliminary title and the first title, as well as an organic part that goes from the second title to tenth title, and finally by a set of provisions (four additional, nine transitional, one repealing and one final).

It is important to underline that in the aforementioned preamble, respect for human rights, democratic values, the consecration of the rule of law and the set of fundamental objectives established by the Constitution as an element to be achieved take center stage.

In the dogmatic part, on the other hand, they realize the aforementioned fundamental rights as well as their guarantees, the guiding principles of social and economic policy and finally the constitutional principles. These are none other than the higher values ​​of the legal system (equality, freedom, political pluralism and justice), that Spain is a Social and Democratic State of Law as well as a set of principles of political organization. In this case, the parliamentary monarchy, the unity of the Spanish nation or interterritorial solidarity, among other issues and fundamental pillars within the country, take center stage.

Meanwhile, what the organic part does is develop the design of the division of powers: executive, judicial and legislative.

Among the doctrinal principles of constitutional law, appears the division of powers (Legislative Power, Executive Power and Judicial Power) and the protection of the rule of law (state power subject to a legal order), national sovereignty and fundamental rights (stability and control of constitutionality, which is the legal mechanism that guarantees compliance with constitutional norms).