Abstract: In the process of constitution-based legislation, the Constitution, as the basis of legislation and constitutionality review, is embodied in constitutional stipulations, constitutional principles and constitutional spirit - the three kinds of formal carriers of the unification of the content and form of constitutional norms. All constitutional norms are concentrated in various forms of constitutional stipulations recorded in the text of the Constitution. The connotation and requirements of constitutional norms in the forms of constitutional principles and constitutional spirit need to be revealed by the method of constitutional interpretation. Constitutional principles can be summarized and abstracted from the constitutional text, while the value of the existence of constitutional spirit needs to be discovered from sources outside the constitutional text. Direct implementation of the Constitution is the key link in the full implementation of the Constitution. The legitimacy of the subjects of Constitution implementation, the objectivity of constitutional basis, the necessity of constitutional interpretation, the guarantee of constitutional procedure, and the corrective nature of constitutional review are the key institutional elements in the mechanism for direct implementation of the Constitution, which are indispensable for the implementation of the stipulations of the Constitution. Based on policy considerations, "relevant stipulations of the Constitution" specifically refer to the constitutional stipulations in the four areas of emergency, special administrative regions, reunification of the motherland, and national security. Only by integrating the work of direct implementation of the relevant stipulations of the Constitution into a well-coordinated and smoothly operating institutional platform with strong leadership and proper command, can problems relating to the direct implementation of relevant stipulations of the Constitution be effectively solved.

Key Words: constitution stipulation, constitution norm, constitution principle, constitution spirit, direct implementation of constitution

Author: Mo Jihong, research fellow and director of CASS Institute of Law, and a member of CASS;

Source: 5 (2024) Chinese Journal of Law.