Constitute

Extensive, highly searchable collection of the world's constitutions

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 4 reviews

Privacy rating

Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

9–12

Subjects & Skills

Character & SEL, Critical Thinking, English Language Arts, Social Studies

Price: Free
Platforms: Web

Pros: Easy-to-use site lets users search, review, and compare constitutions from countries around the world.

Cons: Lessons for classroom use aren't provided; the complex language and content may be too challenging for some students.

Bottom Line: Quickly and easily access almost any country's constitution, locate an excerpt, or compare governments.

Although created by academics for government officials who are writing new constitutions, this site offers many classroom applications. For direct student use, a lesson could be developed in which students pick a specific topic or issue and research how it is addressed by the constitutions of different countries. With preparation, you could pull excerpts for a primary-document analysis of constitutional issues.

Another possible use is to have students create visual representations about a specific topic to break down the complex issues addressed in the constitution. This type of activity would be especially valuable for English language learners who are learning both vocabulary and content. Finally, reviewing and comparing a number of constitutions could serve as valuable background for creating an original constitution, perhaps as a culminating activity. 

Constitute is a website that enables you to read, search, and compare constitutions from around the world. Searches can be filtered by country, region, date, or topic. Currently, 191 constitutions are available for review and analysis in English, while Arabic Constitute includes 54 independent states' constitutions. The topic filter sorts constitutions based on selected issues and important provisions. For example, you can find specific information about religion, citizenship, or guaranteed rights without reading the entire document. In addition, you can compare and contrast multiple constitutions on a particular topic, such as the election process or the structure of government, by selecting that tag and viewing the sections of a constitution that relates to that theme. You can also choose to view multiple constitutions side by side, and you can pin those comparisons and your observations to another space to keep track of your reactions Documents or excerpts can be viewed online or downloaded as PDF files.

The educational value of Constitute is as a resource for reviewing and analyzing primary documents. Teachers will need to create relevant curriculum for their individual classes. As is, the documents are written at a high level with much “legalese” (difficult vocabulary) and are probably best suited for advanced learners. If used with general education students, providing definitions of key terms and using short excerpts would be beneficial. The site has a clean and simple layout and is easy to navigate, even if the highly specialized legal language can seem impenetrable for a lay audience.

Students from different countries may find it interesting to compare the U.S. Constitution with the one from their country of origin in a variety of different areas. Constitute is definitely a time saver for finding, sorting, and excerpting constitutions, and for helping students explore the topics of rights, laws, and government.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

Student interest will depend heavily on how teachers present the documents in the classroom. The content offers students an opportunity to explore complex issues of law and government around the world, which some students will love.

Pedagogy

While the site wasn't created as a teaching tool, its structure lends itself to classroom use. The ability to sort and find relevant excerpts will be useful to teachers as they create lessons.

Support

The site is easy to navigate, but it provides no specific guidance on how to use the documents in the classroom. The developers encourage feedback and provide a basic overview of the site.

Common Sense reviewer

Community Rating

A Great Tool for Government, History and World Cultures Courses

This is a great tool for students to use within the context of a larger project. I enjoy the quick ability to search the constitutions based on preset topics. It helps give instant perspective and comparison with other nations. The ability to compare to the US constitution (and others) is invaluable. It is helpful for students to begin immediate analysis of various nations and their ideals. Although constitutions for nations can be found anywhere online this site has a level of interaction beyond the simple pdf files. This is a modification of what is already publicly available. They are slowly adding historical constitutions which can help increase the usefulness of the site. If those improvements continue then the site can be useful for classes that focus on events centered in history such as the French Revolution or the dissolution of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. As it stands the focus sits on events primarily in the 20th century due to the modern nature of many constitutions. The site is best used in conjunction with other material such as news articles or general histories. For example, when reading the DPRK's constitution the question arises of what is "juche"? Really all of the material needs to be placed within larger contexts. The site is a tool for not only beginning to understand other nations but the start of analysis on how and why they tick.

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Privacy Rating

Data Safety How safe is this product?

  • Unclear whether this product supports interactions between trusted users.
  • Unclear whether personal information can be displayed publicly.
  • Unclear whether user-created content is filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.

Data Rights What rights do I have to the data?

  • Unclear whether users can create or upload content.
  • Unclear whether this product provides processes to access and review user data.
  • Unclear whether this product provides processes to modify data for authorized users.

Ads & Tracking Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Unclear whether personal information are shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays traditional or contextual advertisements.
  • Unclear whether this product displays personalised advertising.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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