1937 · Constitutions

Constitution of Ireland

Ireland

The constitution of Ireland, approved by referendum, with a list of fundamental rights, a President and a Supreme Court that can strike down laws.

Why it matters

It brought together the Westminster parliamentary system with a written bill of rights enforced by courts. Its Directive Principles of Social Policy were later copied in India.

Built on

1919

Weimar Constitution

Germany

borrowed ideas on a directly elected president and on fundamental rights

1787 (in force 1789)

Constitution of the United States

United States

adopted a written constitution with judicial review

Went on to shape

1949 (in force 1950)

Constitution of India

India

took the idea of directive principles of social policy

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

Ireland

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.