HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF CONSTITUTION

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Ernest de Sarzec (1832-1901), a French archaeologist credited for discovering proof of the Sumerian civilization made the excavations in modern-day Iraq. In 1877, evidence of earliest code of justice was found by Sarzec, issued by the Sumerian king Urukagina of Lagash ca 2300 BC. Perhaps the earliest prototype for a law of government, this document itself has not yet been discovered. Nevertheless, it allowed some rights to his citizens, for instance, it relieved tax for widows and orphans and protected the poor from the usury of the rich. Many governments ruled by special codes of written laws after that. The oldest such document still known to exist seems to be the Code of Ur-Nammu of Ur (ca2050 BC). Some of the widely known ancient codes of law include the code of Lipit-Ishtar of Isin, the code of Hammurabi of Babylonia, the Hittite code, the Assyrian code and Mosaic law.
In 621 BC, the laws of the city-state of Athens that authorized the death penalty for any offences were written by a scribe named Draco. In 594 BC Solon, the ruler of Athens created the new Solonian Constitution. It eased the burden of the workers but it made the ruling class to be determined by plutocracy instead of aristocracy. In 508 BC, Cleisthenes reformed the Athenian constitution and brought it on a democratic basis. Aristotle (ca 350 BC) was the first to make a formal distinction between ordinary law and constitutional law, forming ideas of constitutionalism and attempting to classify different forms of constitutional government. He explores different constitutions in his works Constitution of Athens, Politics, and Nicomachean Ethics including those of Athens, Sparta, and Carthage. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that the best constitution was a ...

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...etts adopted its constitution in 1780 before the ratification of the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. It is probably the oldest still-functioning nominal constitution, that is, where the document specifically declares itself to be a constitution. The United States Constitution, ratified 1789, was influenced by the British constitutional system and the political system of the United Provinces. The document became a benchmark for republican and codified constitutions written thereafter and is commonly believed to be the oldest modern, national, codified constitution in the world. Next constitutions in the world and first in Europe, were the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Constitution of May 3, 1791 and the French Constitution of September 3, 1791.

Works Cited

L.L.C, 2008, Constitutions for Know-It-Alls, 1st edn, Filiquarian Publishing,

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