Chapter VIII
Deals with the Federal Capital Territory and carries the general and supplementary provisions, including transitional matters and interpretation.
Section by section
Each section is shown twice over: what the section is and where its text lives, beside our plain-language explanation of it.
Official text
Section 305 · Chapter VIII
We do not reproduce the wording. Read section 305 in the official text of the Constitution as amended.
Plain language — our explanation
Sets out the procedure by which the President may proclaim a state of emergency, the conditions for doing so, and the requirement of approval by the National Assembly.
Official text
Section 308 · Chapter VIII
We do not reproduce the wording. Read section 308 in the official text of the Constitution as amended.
Plain language — our explanation
While in office, the President, Vice-President, Governors and Deputy Governors are protected from civil and criminal proceedings against them in their personal capacity, on the terms the section sets. The protection ends when the office does.
Official text
Section 315 · Chapter VIII
We do not reproduce the wording. Read section 315 in the official text of the Constitution as amended.
Plain language — our explanation
Provides how laws already in force when the Constitution came into effect continue to operate, and how they are to be read so as to bring them into conformity with it.
Read the words
Nothing here reproduces the operative text. Every section is shown as two panes — what the section is, and our plain-language explanation of it — so the two can never be mistaken for each other. The Constitution has also been altered several times since 1999.
Where the precise wording matters — and in a constitutional argument it always does — read the official text of the Constitution as amended, and take advice on how the courts have interpreted the provision you are relying on.
Track the alterations and amendments