Constitution

• Law, policy, and regulation
• Legal system

A constitution might include a number of important points from the perspective of food, health, and nutrition:

1. An overview of the relationship between the three branches of government (legislature, executive, judiciary) and their respective roles. It might also detail the process of creating laws, including the actors involved in that process, and the status of a ministry–a key part of the executive branch of the government. Ultimately, the Constitution could facilitate an understanding about food, health, and nutrition-related subjects, in particular, which ministry looks after food, health, and nutrition-related matters.
2. Rights, such as the guarantee of the right to food that might impact the creation of food policy and regulation.
3. Provisions determining the structure of the country: Are there states or provinces or counties or similar smaller subunits?
4. The exercise and delineation of law-making powers.

Other terms with the same meaning and function: Basic document, fundamental legal document, bill of rights.

Examples: In a federal country, the Constitution would indicate the subjects or issues the central, union, or federal government might exercise law-making powers in relation to and those subjects or issues that are within the domain of the states, provinces, or other subunits in the country: Pakistan is a federal state, and food, nutrition, health are provincial subjects. This means that they are within the purview of law-making by the province and not the central government. In contrast, in a unitary system, there is no distinction between law making actors at the central or state level. For instance, in Bangladesh and Viet Nam, there is no state/provincial level law-making. However, note that even in a unitary state some powers can be delegated to state or provincial level actors. India has a Constitution enacted in 1950; Canada has a Constitution enacted in 1867 then comprehensively amended in 1982.