Chapter 1

Constitutional law
-is the study of maintenance of the proper balance between authority as represented by the three
inherent powers of the State and liberty as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

-tyranny or the unwarranted primacy of liberty over authority as this would result in anarchy.

-True role of the Constitutional Law is to effect equilibrium between authority and liberty so that
rights are exercised within the framework of the law and the laws are enacted with due deference to
rights.

-the fundamental powers of the State are:

1. police power

2. power of eminent domain

3. power of taxation

The safeguards of the Bill of Rights:

1. right to due process and equal protection

2. prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures

3. freedom of expression

4. impairment clause

5. guarantees against injustice to the accused

-common objective: co-existence

-goal: a well-ordered society based on the inviolability of rights which, although they may not
be curtailed arbitrarily, may nevertheless be regulated for the common good .
-condition sine qua non for the proper enjoyment; of liberty, with the common weal as the criterion.

-once authority is established it is necessary to define and limit its reach, lest regulation become
encroachment and the pristine purity of rights is debased by naked power.

Chapter 2
The Nature of the Constitution
Definition
-“that body of rules and maxims in accordance with the powers of sovereignty habitually
exercised”. (Cooley)
-"the written instrument enacted by the direct action of the people by which the fundamental
powers of the government are established, limited and defined, and by which those powers are
distributed among the several departments for their safe and useful exercise for the benefit of
the body politic." (Justice Malcolm)
Purpose