Constitution of the Kingdom of Belgium

The constitution of the Kingdom of Belgium is the modified version of the Belgian constitution of February 7, 1831. The text of the constitution is set in German, French and Dutch.

Origin and development

After breaking away from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as part of the Belgian Revolution of 1830, the new Belgian state adopted a constitution in 1831. The Belgian constitution was based on the Dutch constitution of 1814 and, like this, provides for a parliamentary monarchy . Since its creation it has seen several changes, some of them fundamental; the last constitutional amendment is that of 1994, through which the Belgian unitary state was transformed into a federal state (in other opinion: into a decentralized unitary state).

For its part, the Belgian constitution was the template for many European constitutions of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Iranian constitution of 1906, which was valid with some changes from the Constitutional Revolution to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, was also based on the Belgian constitution. The German practice of passing the state budget in the form of a law ( budget law ) instead of passing it through a simple parliamentary resolution can be traced back to the Belgian constitution of 1831 via the Prussian constitution .

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1. ↑ Article 189 of the Belgian Constitution
2. ↑ Janet Afary: The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906-1911, New York, 1996, p. 108
3. ^ Klaus Grupp, in: Norbert Achterberg / Günter Püttner / Thomas Würtenberger (eds.): Special administrative law. A teaching and manual , Vol. II: Municipal, budget, tax, regulatory, social and service law , 2nd edition, Heidelberg 2000, § 19, Rn 6; Reinhard Mußgnug : The budget as a law , Göttingen 1976, plus Habil.-Schrift, Univ. Heidelberg 1969, p. 152 ff.

Web links

• Text of the Constitution , Coordinated Text of February 17, 1994, on the website of the Belgian Senate