Constitutional law

Other times, constitutional principles act to place limits on what the government can do, such as prohibiting the arrest of an individual without sufficient cause.

When a constitution establishes a federal state for instance as seen in India, it will identify multiple levels of government coexisting with exclusive or shared areas of jurisdiction over lawmaking, application and enforcement.

[4] Some countries like the United Kingdom have no entrenched document setting out fundamental rights; in those jurisdictions the constitution is composed of statute, case law and convention.

A case named Entick v. Carrington[5] is a constitutional principle deriving from the common law.

Carrington argued that a warrant from a Government minister, the Earl of Halifax was valid authority, even though there was no statutory provision or court order for it.

The court, led by Lord Camden stated that, "The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property.

That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole.

Common law nations, such as those in the Commonwealth as well as the United States, derive their legal systems from that of the United Kingdom, and as such place emphasis on judicial precedent,[7][8][9] whereby consequential court rulings (especially those by higher courts) are a source of law.

These are intended to ensure basic political, social and economic standards that a nation state, or intergovernmental body is obliged to provide to its citizens but many do include its governments.

"...no man is above the law...every man, whatever be his rank or condition, is subject to the ordinary law of the realm and amenable to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals" [15] The third is that the general ideas and principles that the constitution supports arise directly from the judgements and precedents issued by the judiciary.

"We may say that the constitution is pervaded by the rule of law on the ground that the general principles of the constitution... are with us the result of judicial decisions determining the rights of private persons in particular cases brought before the courts" [16] Separation of powers is often regarded as a second limb functioning alongside the rule of law to curb the powers of the government.