6 The Nepali frame

The Constitution of 2072 combines these forms: a bill of rights enforceable in the courts, directive principles and policies that guide the state, a federal structure with three levels, and provisions on the independence of the judiciary. It declares the constitution the fundamental law and any inconsistent law void. The working questions of constitutional law in Nepal are therefore the familiar ones: how far a restriction on a right is proportionate, how the three levels of government share a contested power, and who reviews an emergency.