State -A community of persons, more or less c.
c. aerial domain- the air space above the land
numerous, permanently occupying a fixed territory
and possessed of an independent government
organized for political ends to which the great body
of inhabitants render habitual obedience.
ELEMENTS OF STATE
1. PEOPLE
• inhabitants of the state
• Community of persons sufficient in no. &
capable of maintaining the continued
existence of the community & held together
by a common bond of law
• Doesn’t matter if they possess diverse racial,
cultural or economic interests
2. GOVERNMENT
a. The agency or instrumentality, through
which the will of the state is formulated,
expressed and realized.
b. the institution or aggregate of institutions by
which an independent society makes and
carries out those rules of action which are
necessary to enable men to live in a social
State, or which are imposed upon the people
forming that society by those who possess
the power or authority of prescribing them.
3. TERRITORY-fixed portion of the surface
of the earth, inhabited by the people of the
state. The territory must not be too small as
to be unable to provide for the needs of the
people; nor should it be too large as to be
difficult to administer. The territory can
extend to over a vast expanse, like China or
Russia, or be as small as Abu Dhabi.
COMPONENTS OF TERRITORY
a. Terrestrial domain-the land mass
b. maritime or fluvial domain-inland and
external waters
notion that legitimate state authority must be
and water.
4. SOVEREIGNTY
• means the supreme, uncontrollable power,
the absolute right to govern.
• The supreme will of the State, the power to
make laws, and enforce them by all the
means of coercion it cares to employ.
• Legal sovereignty: power to adapt/alter the
constitution or supreme power to make laws
vs. Political sovereignty: sum total of all the
influences in a state, legal & non-legal w/c
determine the course of law
THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF STATE
1. Voluntaristic theories said that at some
point in their history, certain peoples
spontaneously rationally and voluntarily
gave up their individual sovereignties and
united with other communities to form a
larger political unit deserving to be called a
state.
a. "automatic" theory. According to this
theory, the invention of agriculture
automatically brought into being a surplus of
food, enabling some individuals to divorce
themselves from food production and to
become potters, weavers, smiths, masons,
and so on, thus creating an extensive
division of labor.
2. Coercive Theories A close examination of
history indicates that only a coercive theory
can account for the rise of the state. Force
and not enlightened self-interest. is the
mechanism by which political evolution has
led. step by step, from autonomous villages
to the state.
3. Social contract theory provides the
rationale behind the historically important
derived from the consent of the governed.
STATE, AS DISTINGUISHED FROM NATION
The state pertains to a legal concept, while the nation
refers to a racial or ethnic concept.
…AS DISTINGUISHED FROM GOVERNMENT
The government is only an element of the state. The
government is an agent, and the State is the principal.
The government externalizes the will of the State.
FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT
The government performs two functions—the
constituent and the ministrant.
1. CONSTITUENT-constitute the bonds of
society. Constituent functions consist of
fixing of legal relations between husband
and wife, parents and children; keeping of
order and providing protection from
violence; regulation of the holding,
transmission and interchange of property;
determination of liabilities for debt or crime;
determination of contractual rights between
individuals; definition and punishment of
crimes, administration of justice in civil
cases; administration of political duties,
privileges, and relations of citizens, and
dealings of the state with foreign powers,
preservation of state from external dangers,
and the advancement of international
interests.
2. MINISTRANT functions-are those taken to
advance the general interests of society—
such as public works, public charity,
regulation of trade and industry.

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: DE Jure and De
Facto governments
A de jure government has rightful title but no power
or control, because it may have been withdrawn or it
has not yet actually entered into exercise. On the
other hand, a de facto government is a government of
fact—it actually exercises power or control, but has
no legal title.
WHAT IS A CONSTITUTION?
• A Constitution is the fundamental organic
law of a State which contains the principles
on which the government is founded and
regulates the division and exercise of
sovereign powers.
• A body of rules and maxims in accordance
with which the powers of sovereignty are
habitually exercised.
THE SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION
The Constitution is the most basic and most
paramount law to which all other laws must conform
and to which all persons including the higher officials
of the land must defer. No act shall be valid however
noble its intentions if it is in conflict with the
Constitution. The Constitution must reign supreme.
IMPORTANCE, NATURE AND PURPOSE OF
CONSTITUTION
1. The people exercise d control of their
government primarily through the
Constitution which protects from unjust
exercise of governmental power and through
periodic elections by means of which they
choose the officers to represent them.
2. A constitution is the supreme or fundamental
law creating the government having been
enacted by the people themselves.
3. The purpose of the constitution is to draw
framework or general outline of the system
of the government and to specific the
respective powers and functions of the CONSTIUTUTION DISTINGUISHED FORM
various branches of government comprising STATUTE
this framework.
1. A constitution is a law give \n directly
KINDS/CLASSIFICATION of CONSTITUTION by the people while a statute is enacted
by the people’s representative
As to their origin and history 2. A constitution is the fundamental law of
• Conventional or enacted one which is the state on which all other laws or
enacted by a constituent assembly or granted statute are based
by a monarch to his subjects
BASIC PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING OUR
• Cumulative or evolved-one which is the
CONSTITUTION
product of growth or a long period of
development originating in customs,
traditions, judicial decisions rather than from • Recognition of the Almighty God
• Sovereignity of the people
deliberate and formal enactment
• Supremacy of civilian authority
over the military
As to their form:
• Written-one which has been given definite • Separation of Church and State
written form at a particular time usually by a • Guarantee of human rights
specially constituted authority called • Government through suffrage
constitutional convention • Separation of powers
• Unwritten-one which is entirely the product • Independence of the judiciary
of political evolution ,consisting largely of a • Rule of the majority
mass of customs, usages and judicial
decisions together with a smaller body of • Government of laws and not of
statutory enactments of a fundamental men
character, usually bearing different dates
As to manner of amending them:
• Rigid or inelastic-one regarded as a
document of a special sanctity which cannot
be amended or altered except by some
special machinery more cumbrous than the
ordinary legislative process.
• Flexible or elastic-one which possess no
higher legal authority than ordinary laws and
which may be altered in the same way as
other laws.