Perlembagaan

Perlembagaan sesebuah organisasi atau negara menjelaskan bentuknya, strukturnya, aktiviti-aktivitinya, sifat-sifatnya dan peraturan-pertaurannya yang utama. Perkataan ini berasal dari perkataan Latin constitutio, yang bermaksud undang-undang penting, yang biasanya dikeluarkan oleh seorang Maharaja, dan digunakan secara meluas dalam penggubalan undang-undang berkanun iaitu keputusan relevan untuk ketua agama iaitu "pope".

Organisasi-organisasi yang biasanya menggunakan konsep ini termasuklah:

• Kerajaan -kerajaan dan badan-badan kerajaan
• Persatuan - persatuan sukarela
• Trade union
• Parti-parti politik
• Syarikat-syarikat

An organisation may be given specific powers on the condition that it abides by this constitution or charter limitation. The Latin term ultra vires describes activities that fall outside an organisation's or parliamentary body's constitutional activities. For example, a students' union may be prohibited from engaging in activities not concerning students as students, if the students' union becomes involved in nonstudent activities these activities are considered ultra vires of the students' union's charter, or a bank that tries to act as a real estate agent. An example from the constitutional law of nation-states would be a provincial government in a federal state which may not have authority over banking under the federal constitution, so any laws the provincial parliaments pass regarding banking will be considered void or ultra vires of that parliament's constitutional authority.

Countries that adopt constitutions usually do so by a process of ratification.