Constitution Sources

The Dominican constitution is our "Magna Carta": the highest collection of laws that regulate the development of the every level of the country's daily life. The first Constitution dates back to November 6, 1844 and, throughout the years, has experienced various reforms.

Sources of the Constitution of 1844

The direct sources of our first constitution were:

• The U.S. Constitution of 1787, from which we adopted the presidential system;
• The French constitutions of 1799 and 1814, which determined the essential nature of the adoption of the bicameral legislature system.
• The Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy of March 18, 1812, known as the Constitution of Cadiz, which inspired the municipal divisions and the provincial system.
• The Haitian constitutions of 1816 and 1843: in the writing of the latter, Dominican representatives from the departments of Ozama and Cibao participated (Buenaventura Báez, Juan Nepomuceno Tejera, Manuel María Valencia and M.R. Castellanos), and from that very document, 113 were copied, out of only 211 in the constitution of San Cristóbal.