constitutional law, Body of rules, doctrines, and practices that govern the operation of political communities. In modern times the most important political community has been the state. Modern constitutional law is the offspring of nationalism as well as of the idea that the state must protect certain fundamental rights of the individual. As the number of states has multiplied, so have constitutions, and with them the body of constitutional law, though sometimes such law originates from sources outside the state. Every political community, and thus every state, has a constitution, at least insofar as it operates its important institutions according to some fundamental body of rules. Constitutions may be written or unwritten, codified or uncodified, and complex or simple, and they may provide for vastly different patterns of governance.
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