Characteristics of a Good Constitution

1. Adaptability

A good constitution must be flexible to some extent. It must always adapt to the social, political,
economic, technological and other changes that are inevitable in the life of a country for its
development and process.

2. Responsibility and accountability:

it ensure accountability in government by making laws which will make the actions of the government
illegal whenever the make decisions without consulting the masses.

3. Separation of powers of the government:

Sharing political powers among the three arms of government helps to ensure that political powers are
not concentrated in a single hand.

This theory was propounded by Montesquieu. According to him, if political powers are not shared, only
one person or a group of people will control all the affairs of a state. This means that there will be
tyranny and abuse of power.

Based on this, a good constitution must ensure that the political powers are duly shared within the arms
of the government and that their powers does no interfere with each other.

4. Representation of the people in government:

In a heterogeneous country, it is usually advisable for the constitution to provide for the representation
of the people in government. This means that the people should be able to choose who can represent
them at the federal, state and local level of government.

5. Comprehensiveness

It is important that the constitution be comprehensive because many people depends on the
information contained in it. If a constitution is not comprehensive enough, it will lead to miscarriage of
justice in many court cases and that is not the purpose of a good constitution.

It should be noted however, that the constitution must not also contain unnecessary information or
words.

6. Protects the fundamental human rights of citizens:

Fundamental human rights are does rights which are inalienable and immutable and are given to every
citizen because he/she is a human being.
Human rights are very important. In the constitution of most countries, the fundamental human rights
of citizens are usually expressly states and protected to avoid breach.

7. Clearity:

No matter how just and fair the intentions of the drafter of the constitution may be, if he is not clear, he
has failed about 70% of his job.

In drafting the constitution, the legislature must not that the law which they are making is meant for
both the educated and illiterate members of the society. Thus, they must make sure that simple words
are used to express the exact intention of the legislature for creating the law.

8. Independence of the judiciary:

Any constitution that really want to safeguard the fundamental human rights of its citizens must protect
and ensure independence of the judiciary. Immunity of the judiciary is provided for in the constitution of
many countries of the world.

9. It guarantees Equity, Freedom and Justice:

It is truism that the main objective of the constitution is to ensure Equity, Freedom and Justice. The
constitution can do this by stating punishments whether the actions of anyone leads to inequality or
injustice.