State Constitutions. Mainly, American State Constitutions

Abstract

This article deals with a study of the state constitutions of the federal states, based on two premises: their diversity among the different federal states and their disregard by the doctrine and the citizens. Taking as reference the state constitutions of the North American states, it has been tried to clarify the legal position of the same in the system of sources and to know their vicissitudes from an analysis of the most relevant aspects of their content. As a final point, the state constitutions´ amendment procedure is studied, a complex process in which the plurality of intervening actors stands out, as well as the variety of requirements in their processing and integration. This work is integrated in the need to know all the elements to be considered in a federalizing approach, beyond general and imprecise formulas.