Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986
The Philippine Constitutional Commission of 1986 was the constitutional convention tasked with drafting the present iteration of the Constitution of the Philippines in 1986.
Batasang Pambansa Complex
Commissioners of the Constitutional Commission
A constituent assembly is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected by popular vote, drawn by sortition, appointed, or some combination of these methods. Assemblies are typically considered distinct from a regular legislature, although members of the legislature may compose a significant number or all of its members. As the fundamental document constituting a state, a constitution cannot normally be modified or amended by the state's normal legislative procedures in some jurisdictions; instead a constitutional convention or a constituent assembly, the rules for which are normally laid down in the constitution, must be set up. A constituent assembly is usually set up for its specific purpose, which it carries out in a relatively short time, after which the assembly is dissolved. A constituent assembly is a form of representative democracy.
Opening session of the 2021 Chilean constitutional convention
The Danish Constituent Assembly. Painting by Constantin Hansen (1864).
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy (1940)
The Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1830 (George Catlin, ca. 1830). Many state constituent assemblies, like the 1830 Virginia Constitutional Convention, were highly formalized but the legitimacy of the constitution they drafted depended on whether it was authorized by the people, not whether a particular procedure was followed.
