Unit 5: Construction of Constitution, Contract, Deeds, and Will
5.1 Construction of Constitution
The constitution’s difference: the supreme law’s construction is its own craft — the rigidity’s inverse (the amendment’s difficulty demands the interpretation’s adaptability); the breadth of language (the general terms intended to endure); the people’s document (the intention’s source is the people, not the drafters’ mere words). The schools (the syllabus’s five):
5.1.1 Harmonious Construction
The constitution’s provisions read together — no clause destroyed, the conflicts reconciled (the rights-and-directives balance; the federal powers’ reconciliation — the lists’ harmony of the Constitutional Law course). The constitutional harmonious construction’s classic use: the fundamental rights read as a mutually-consistent whole (Art 18’s equality with the special provisions of Art 42 — the verified texts’ reconciliation).
5.1.2 Construction Ut Res Magis Valeat Quam Pereat
The constitutional validity-preserving rule: the provision read to operate, not to fail — the constitutional questions’ last resort (the statute’s constitutional survival reading, the U6.2 face; the organs’ powers’ effective reading).
5.1.3 Liberal Interpretation
The generous reading: the rights’ provisions liberally construed (the beneficial canon’s constitutional home — the rights’ enlargement where the words allow); the Nepal practice: the Supreme Court’s generous-rights tradition (the PIL era’s style — the Human Rights course’s cases as specimens).
5.1.4 Progressive Interpretation
The living-constitution reading: the general terms applied to new realities (the dignity-and-privacy provisions in the digital era; broad classifications read against changing social facts). The progressive school’s justification: the constitution’s longevity (“a constitution intended to endure for ages” — the classic’s line); its discipline: the text’s anchor (the progressive reading is interpretation, not amendment — the boundary the critics police).
5.1.5 Purposive Interpretation
The constitution’s object-first reading: the preamble’s purposes (the dignity-liberty-equality frame) as the interpretive compass; the purposive method’s modern dominance (the proportionality era’s arrival in the constitutional review — the structure: the aim’s identification, the means’ fitting).
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