At an international seminar on constitutional law held in Quito, Dr. Joseph Jacobs of the London School of Economics in London said: “The characteristic of the English constitution is the fact that it is not written. Some, just some, say it doesn’t exist.” The Constitution of the United States of America, from 1787, is the oldest written constitution, with more than 240 years and 4,300 words. It is necessary to have these two constitutions as a historical reference. Although they belong to the original law in to those countries, they have different origins and goals. The English constitution took shape before the Magna Carta of 1215, when King John of England was forced to sign it with his subjects due to multiple violations of the ancient laws and traditions by which England was governed and due to the struggle for rights of the people of the people against the oppression of the monarch The US Constitution sought to bring together the 13 colonies with different interests into one nation, with principles of equality and against excessive power, and the purpose of the bill of rights was to leave them as legal principles that should apply to to courts and tribunals and the one established is not subject to political manipulation.

Are you in the service of power?

Ecuador has had 20 constitutions since the one of 1830, which basically establish the unification of the three departments (Guayaquil, Quito and Cuenca) and the form of government. It could be said that the English Constitution began to be structured from the Magna Carta and would be more than a thousand years old, a period during which it was transformed from the absolute power of the monarchy to the present date, when it is said that “the king reigns but does not reign”. But the most important thing is that Englishmen carry respect for those constitutional principles in their spirit and in their public and private life. Americans respect the Constitution and respect the law in all its manifestations; they modify it by amendments which can only be approved by the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Cross of Death: Lessons

The constitution from 2008, during the time of former president Rafael Correa, was confirmed by a referendum with his full support. Many citizens voted against it, but the majority approved it. After almost 15 years of validity, we understand that it was a Trojan horse of the authoritarian project of the former president, and that the administrative and declarative regulations that appear have turned it into a straitjacket that prevents changes and modernization. This was supplemented by organic laws and regulations that destroyed the institutional framework and turned us into a republic of chaos.

This Constitution has in the second number of Article 83 some Quichua expressions that say: “Ama killa, ama llulla, ama shwa (do not be idle, do not lie, do not steal)”, but neither the Government nor the indigenous people who sponsored this constitution have adhered to it This expression was the current norm in the Incas, and then it was even approved by the UN. It was also read around 1930 on the flag of the Aprista party in Peru. (OR)