Lecture on Constitutional supremacy : different experiences in the United States, India and Malta

Abstract

The idea of a written Constitution being supreme is a relatively recent one. It was only with the birth of the Constitution of the United States of America in 1789 that the idea was born that a written constitution should be regarded as the apex or the supreme law; and then such supremacy was not enshrined in the Constitution itself but was only the result of the landmark judgment in 1803 of Marbury v . Madison. Indeed, the United States Constitution does not have a supremacy clause except one which proclaims the supremacy of the Federal Constitution vis a vis the State constitutions ; but it is silent on whether the Constitution prevails over the measures and actions of the Federal institutions such as Congress or the President of the United States. [extract]