The Peruvian Constitution of 1823 and the beginnings of representative government

Abstract

In the constitutional history of Peru, the Constitution of 1823, adopted in the heat of the war of independence, represented a transitional formula between monarchical constitutionalism and the truly national constitutionalism that was established with the adoption of the Constitution of 1828. The watershed status of this first fundamental charter can be explained both by the circumstances surrounding its drafting and by the decisions taken by the nation’s representatives from the time of the installation of the Constituent Congress. These circumstances and decisions triggered the serious events that led to the fact that, once the Constitution had been sanctioned and promulgated, its validity was subject to Bolívar’s authority.