Study On Constitutional Authority In Our Country

The constitution is the fundamental law that has the strongest legal force. It provides the fundamental institutions of a country. As the basic norm of conduct, it is in the core of a country's legal system and should have the highest legal authority. In Western countries, the constitution's authority has been widely accepted and effectively maintained. This is inseparable from its concept of"law governs the country"."Law governs the country"means to govern the country by law and its core is to govern the country according to the constitution, which further means to enforce the constitution on paper. Achieving this goal requires a lot of institutions and ideas as the basis. The most important one is effective constitutional supervision and constitutional judicial review. By contrast, the judicial review is absent in China, either in nominal or material form.The paper first introduces the concept of constitutional authority and describes in details the content of constitutional authority from legislative process and practice of law. Then, based on the introduction of constitutional authority of various countries and analysis of the status of constitutional authority in China, the paper specifically analyzes the reasons for the absence of constitutional authority in China. Undeniably, the constitution in China is theoretically authoritative. However, authority in form doesn't necessarily bring about material authority. For a long period, policies and laws have higher authority over constitutional authority. Especially, the primacy of policies severely impedes the establishment of the material authority of the constitution. In a true sense, constitutional authority hasn't been built. This can be attributed to the unique historical background of China. However, we should be more concerned about social reality. We should analyze the economy, thoughts, systems and judicial practice and other factors of the modern society and bring forward institutional proposals for the establishment of constitutional authority in China. To accomplish this goal, we should: improve the market economy system of China to lay economic basis for the establishment of constitutional authority; cultivate the constitutional awareness and constitutional belief of citizens to guarantee in thought the establishment of constitutional authority; advance the development of a democratic political system, improve the institutions with respect to constitutional revision, constitutional supervision and judicial review to guarantee in institution for the establishment of constitutional authority.