ABSTRACT
Where autochthony21 exists, the authority for the constitution arises from the people. The phrase ‘We the People’ has powerful psychological – and legal – force, and the resultant document, the constitution, will be supreme. As KC Wheare explains in relation to the United States of America:
The constitution of the United States expresses the essential supremacy of a constitution in a federal government in the passage: ‘This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof ... shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.’ [1963, p 54]
All power entrusted to government comes from the people: it is accordingly understandable that, under such a constitutional arrangement, there is a strongly held belief that government holds its power on ‘trust’ for the people. It may be said, as a result, that both law making and executive powers are conditionally conferred on those who hold public office, subject to the doctrine of trust which will be enforced by the courts in the name of the people. All constitutions – written and unwritten – exist against the backcloth of historical, political and moral evolution: none exists in a vacuum. However, under a written constitution, this background has a particular significance. The constitution, being the expression of the political morality of its age – updated by the judiciary through interpretative methods – is a constant reflection and reminder of the will of the people and the restraints which that will imposes on government.
