Editing Constitution (section)

====Middle Ages after 1000====
The ''Pravda Yaroslava'', originally combined by [[Yaroslav the Wise]] the [[Grand Prince of Kiev]], was granted to [[Great Novgorod]] around 1017, and in 1054 was incorporated into the ''[[Russkaya Pravda]]''; it became the law for all of [[Kievan Rus']]. It survived only in later editions of the 15th century.

In England, [[Henry I of England|Henry I's]] proclamation of the [[Charter of Liberties]] in 1100 bound the king for the first time in his treatment of the clergy and the nobility. This idea was extended and refined by the English barony when they forced [[John of England|King John]] to sign [[Magna Carta]] in 1215. The most important single article of Magna Carta, related to "''[[habeas corpus]]''", provided that the king was not permitted to imprison, outlaw, exile or kill anyone at a whim&nbsp;– there must be [[due process]] of law first. This article, Article 39, of Magna Carta read:

{{Blockquote|text=No free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor shall we go against him or send against him, unless by the legal judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land.|author=|title=|source=}}

This provision became the cornerstone of English liberty after that point. The [[social contract]] in the original case was between the king and the nobility but was gradually extended to all of the people. It led to the system of [[Constitutional Monarchy]], with further reforms shifting the balance of power from the monarchy and nobility to the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]].

The [[Nomocanon]] of [[Saint Sava]] ({{langx|sr|Законоправило/Zakonopravilo}})<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QDFVUDmAIqIC&pg=PA118 ''The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century''  John Van Antwerp Fine ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227154539/https://books.google.com/books?id=QDFVUDmAIqIC&pg=PA118 |date=December 27, 2022 }}. Google Books. Retrieved July 12, 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.search.com/reference/Nomocanon Metasearch Search Engine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010145226/https://www.search.com/reference/Nomocanon |date=October 10, 2017 }}. Search.com. Retrieved July 12, 2013.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.emu.co.uk/short-term-loans/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111125010613/http://www.alanwatson.org/sr/petarzoric.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Short Term Loans|archive-date=November 25, 2011}}</ref> was the first [[Serbia]]n constitution from 1219. [[St. Sava's Nomocanon]] was the compilation of [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]], based on [[Roman Law]], and [[canon law]], based on [[Ecumenical Councils]]. Its basic purpose was to organize the functioning of the young [[Kingdom of Serbia (medieval)|Serbian kingdom]] and the [[Serbian Ortodox Church|Serbian church]]. Saint Sava began the work on the Serbian Nomocanon in 1208 while he was at [[Mount Athos]], using ''The Nomocanon in Fourteen Titles'', ''Synopsis of Stefan the Efesian'', ''Nomocanon of [[John Scholasticus]]'', and Ecumenical Council documents, which he modified with the canonical commentaries of Aristinos and [[Joannes Zonaras]], local church meetings, rules of the [[Holy Fathers]], the law of [[Moses]], the translation of Prohiron, and the [[Byzantine emperors]]' [[Novellae Constitutiones|Novellae]] (most were taken from [[Justinian]]'s Novellae). The Nomocanon was a completely new compilation of civil and canonical regulations, taken from [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] sources but completed and reformed by St. Sava to function properly in Serbia. Besides decrees that organized the life of the church, there are various norms regarding civil life; most of these were taken from Prohiron. [[Legal transplants]] of [[Roman Law|Roman]]-[[Byzantine law]] became the basis of the Serbian medieval law. The essence of Zakonopravilo was based on [[Corpus Iuris Civilis]].

[[Stefan Dušan]], emperor of Serbs and Greeks, enacted [[Dušan's Code]] ({{langx|sr|Душанов Законик/Dušanov Zakonik}})<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100803074722/http://www.dusanov-zakonik.com/indexe.html Dusanov Zakonik]}}. Dusanov Zakonik. Retrieved July 12, 2013.</ref> in [[Serbia]], in two state congresses: in 1349 in [[Skopje]] and in 1354 in [[Serres]]. It regulated all social spheres, so it was the second Serbian constitution, after St. Sava's Nomocanon (Zakonopravilo). The Code was based on [[Roman Law|Roman]]-[[Byzantine law]]. The legal [[Legal transplants|transplanting]] within articles 171 and 172 of Dušan's Code, which regulated juridical independence, is notable. They were taken from the Byzantine code [[Basilika]] (book VII, 1, 16–17).

In 1222, Hungarian King [[Andrew II of Hungary|Andrew II]] issued the [[Golden Bull of 1222]].

Between 1220 and 1230, a [[Saxony|Saxon]] administrator, [[Eike von Repgow]], composed the ''[[Sachsenspiegel]]'', which became the supreme law used in parts of Germany as late as 1900.

Around 1240, the [[Copt]]ic Egyptian Christian writer, [['Abul Fada'il Ibn al-'Assal]], wrote the ''[[Fetha Negest]]'' in [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. 'Ibn al-Assal took his laws partly from apostolic writings and Mosaic law and partly from the former [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] codes. There are a few historical records claiming that this law code was translated into [[Ge'ez language|Ge'ez]] and entered Ethiopia around 1450 in the reign of [[Zara Yaqob]]. Even so, its first recorded use in the function of a constitution (supreme law of the land) is with [[Sarsa Dengel]] beginning in 1563. The ''Fetha Negest'' remained the supreme law in Ethiopia until 1931, when a modern-style [[Constitution of Ethiopia|Constitution]] was first granted by Emperor [[Haile Selassie]] I.

[[File:ConstCATMonso1535.png|thumb|upright=0.75|left|Third volume of the compilation of Catalan Constitutions of 1585]]
In the [[Principality of Catalonia]], the [[Catalan constitutions]] were promulgated by the Court from 1283 (or even two centuries before, if [[Usatges of Barcelona]] is considered part of the compilation of Constitutions) until 1716, when [[Philip V of Spain]] gave the [[Nueva Planta decrees]], finishing with the historical laws of [[Catalonia]]. These Constitutions were usually made formally as a royal initiative, but required for its approval or repeal the favorable vote of the [[Catalan Courts]], the medieval antecedent of the modern Parliaments. These laws, like other modern constitutions, had preeminence over other laws, and they could not be contradicted by mere decrees or edicts of the king.

The ''[[Kouroukan Fouga|Kouroukan Founga]]'' was a 13th-century charter of the [[Mali Empire]] in [[West Africa]], reconstructed from oral tradition in 1988 by [[Siriman Kouyaté]].<ref>Mangoné Naing, [http://www.oecd.org/swac/events/38516561.pdf SAH/D(2006)563 The Kurukan Fuga Charter: An example of an Endogenous Governance Mechanism for Conflict Prevention] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010064658/http://www.oecd.org/swac/events/38516561.pdf |date=October 10, 2017 }}, Inter-generational Forum on Endogenous Governance in West Africa organized by Sahel and West Africa Club / [[OECD]], Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), June 26 to 28, 2006. pp. 71–82.</ref> It included the "right to life and to the preservation of physical integrity" and significant protections for women.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Adewale |first1=Adeyinka |title=Pre-colonial Political Order in Africa |date=2023 |work=Reimaging Africa: Lifting the Veil of Ignorance |pages=9–38 |editor-last=Adewale |editor-first=Adeyinka |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-40360-6_2 |access-date=2024-10-05 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-40360-6_2 |isbn=978-3-031-40360-6 |last2=Schepers |first2=Stefan |editor2-last=Schepers |editor2-first=Stefan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2AFmBOiLRAC&dq=kouroukan+fouga+human+rights&pg=PA334 |title=Frontiers of Language and Teaching, Vol.2: Proceedings of the 2011 International Online Language Conference (IOLC 2011) |publisher=Universal-Publishers |isbn=978-1-61233-559-9 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=334}}

The [[Golden Bull of 1356]] was a decree issued by a ''[[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Reichstag]]'' in Nuremberg headed by Emperor [[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles IV]] that fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, an important aspect of the constitutional structure of the [[Holy Roman Empire]].

In [[China]], the [[Hongwu Emperor]] created and refined a document he called ''[[Huang Ming Zu Xun|Ancestral Injunctions]]'' (first published in 1375, revised twice more before he died in 1398). These rules served as a constitution for the [[Ming dynasty]] for the next 250 years.

The oldest written document still governing a sovereign nation today is that of [[San Marino]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/aug/08/jon-huntsman/oldest-surviving-one-document-text/ |title=The United States has "the longest surviving constitution". |publisher=PolitiFact.com |access-date=November 10, 2013}}</ref> The ''[[Constitution of San Marino|Leges Statutae Republicae Sancti Marini]]'' was written in Latin and consists of six books. The first book, with 62 articles, establishes councils, courts, various executive officers, and the powers assigned to them. The remaining books cover criminal and civil law and judicial procedures and remedies. Written in 1600, the document was based upon the ''Statuti Comunali'' (Town Statute) of 1300, itself influenced by the ''Codex Justinianus'', and it remains in force today.

In 1392 the ''[[Carta de Logu]]'' was [[legal code]] of the [[Giudicato of Arborea]] promulgated by the ''giudicessa'' [[Eleanor of Arborea|Eleanor]]. It was in force in [[Sardinia]] until it was superseded by the code of [[Charles Felix of Sardinia|Charles Felix]] in April 1827. The Carta was a work of great importance in [[Sardinia]]n history. It was an organic, coherent, and systematic work of legislation encompassing the [[Civil law (area)|civil]] and [[penal law]].

The ''[[Great Law of Peace|Gayanashagowa]]'', the oral constitution of the [[Haudenosaunee]] nation also known as the Great Law of Peace, established a system of governance as far back as 1190 AD (though perhaps more recently at 1451) in which the [[Sachem]]s, or tribal chiefs, of the Iroquois League's member nations made decisions based on universal consensus of all chiefs following discussions that were initiated by a single nation. The position of Sachem descends through families and are allocated by the senior female clan heads, though, prior to the filling of the position, candidacy is ultimately democratically decided by the community itself.<ref name = Tooker>{{cite book |editor=Clifton JA |title=The Invented Indian: cultural fictions and government policies |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, NJ|year=1990 |pages= [https://books.google.com/books?id=ARbVmr941TsC&pg=PA107 107–128] | chapter = The United States Constitution and the Iroquois League |isbn=978-1-56000-745-6 | author = Tooker E}}</ref>