Glossary · Rule layers and human rights
Constitution (law)
Also known as: Constitutional law, Basic law, Fundamental law
German: Verfassung
In law, a constitution is the highest-ranking body of rules of a state that establishes its institutions, distributes and limits public power and, in most states, guarantees fundamental rights; ordinary laws, regulations and contracts rank below it and must be consistent with it.
- AI regulation
- EU
- USA
- Canada
- China
In one sentence
A constitution is a state's highest-ranking law: it sets up and limits public power. Why provider documents named “constitution” are not one.
Example
Germany's Basic Law binds the legislature, the executive and the courts to the basic rights (Article 1(3)); a provider's “constitution” for its model binds no public authority and confers no rights.
Explained in context
Context cards connect this term with others to answer one question. Also in British English and German.
- Provider rules, national law, EU law and human rights: who sets the rules for AIWhich texts govern what an AI system may say and do — and whom does each of them bind?UKDeutsch
- Claims about AI consciousness: four questions that get mergedWhich different questions hide behind a sentence such as "the AI is not conscious"?UKDeutsch
How it applies
- A constitution binds public power. It addresses the state: legislature, government, administration and courts. Private companies are bound by ordinary law, which must itself be consistent with the constitution. In Germany the basic rights reach private relations only indirectly, through the interpretation of ordinary law; in the USA most constitutional rights apply only to state action.
- A name is not a legal form. Several AI providers call the document that describes the intended values and behavior of their models a “constitution” (see model specification). Such a document is written by a company, addressed to its model and its teams, and enforced by training and product decisions, not by courts. Whether a text is a constitution follows from who enacted it, whom it binds and how it is enforced, not from its title.
- No constitution decides an empirical question. A constitution can tie dignity and rights to human beings or let ordinary law assign a legal status. It cannot establish whether a system has experiences.
Compared across the EU, the USA, Canada and China (as of October 12, 2026)
- EU: The EU has no constitution. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005; the Treaty of Lisbon (in force since December 1, 2009) amended the existing treaties instead. The treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights are the EU's primary law. Each member state keeps its own constitution, e.g. Germany's Basic Law (Grundgesetz).
- USA: The Constitution of 1787 (in force since 1789) with its amendments, including the Bill of Rights.
- Canada: The Constitution Acts 1867 to 1982; the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982.
- China: The Constitution of the People's Republic of China of 1982, last amended in 2018.
None of the four contains a provision on AI. The rules on AI are ordinary law, regulations and, in the EU, a regulation that applies directly in every member state (EU AI Act).