constituent assembly
Sign in to saveAlso known as constitutional convention, constitutional congress, constitutional assembly
body or assembly of representatives composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- popular assembly
- Subclass of
- constitutional convention
Show 3 more facts
- described by source
- Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary
- partially coincident with
- constitutional convention
- topic's main category
- Category:Constituent assemblies
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Opening session of the 2021 Chilean constitutional convention
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected by popular vote, drawn by sortition, appointed, or some combination of these methods. Assemblies are typically considered distinct from a regular legislature, although members of the legislature may compose a significant number or all of its members. As the fundamental document constituting a state, a constitution cannot normally be modified or amended by the state's normal legislative procedures in some jurisdictions; instead a constitutional convention or a constituent assembly, the rules for which are normally laid down in the constitution, must be set up. A constituent assembly is usually set up for its specific purpose, which it carries out in a relatively short time, after which the assembly is dissolved. A constituent assembly is a form of representative democracy.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “constituent assembly” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.