The Derived Constituent Power in the 2012 Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic

Abstract

The Constitution is the main law of the State, in the sense that it is the supreme source of all legal activities within the State. The Constitution is the basis of the State’s legal system and its rules establish and regulate the State’s public authorities, i.e. the legislative, executive and judicial authorities, which are described as the “the constitutionally established authorities” because they were established by the Constitution which specifies their competencies and explained how to exercise them.

In order to protect the Constitution and to safeguard its provisions from tampering and amended for personal and temporary purposes, and in order to give the status of persistent, stability and sanctity of its provisions, the Constitutional Legislator tended to provide for special procedures and strict requirements for the amendment of the Constitution, different from the normal procedures followed for the amendment of ordinary laws. He established a special authority entrusted with the task of amending the Constitution. The Constitutional jurisprudence has termed this authority as the “derived constituent power”. This approach adopted by the Syrian Constitutional Legislator in the 2012 Constitution in its article 150