In Australia, each
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
has its own constitution.
Each state constitution preceded the federal
Constitution of Australia
The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the A ...
as the constitutions of the then six
self-governing colonies
In the British Empire, a self-governing colony was a colony with an elected government in which elected rulers were able to make most decisions without referring to the colonial power with nominal control of the colony. This was in contrast to a ...
. Upon
federation
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
in 1901, the states ceded certain powers to the federal government under the federal constitution.
List of constitutions
The following is a list of the current constitutions of the six states of Australia. Each entry shows the ordinal number of the current constitution, the official name of the current constitution, and the date on which the current constitution took effect.
See also
*
State constitution (United States)
In the United States, each state has its own written constitution.
They are much longer than the United States Constitution, which only contains 4,543 words. State constitutions are all longer than 8,000 words because they are more detailed reg ...
References
{{reflist
State constitutions of Australia
Constitutions of country subdivisions
Law of Australia
Australian law-related lists