Countries by a Single Clue #9

US "moves with the times" also, to an extent. The Constitution is simply amended, not replaced.

I agree with Aaron. Because the US Constitution is amendable it can be changed to reflect the opinions and conventions of the times - case in point the 18th and 21st Amendments. It's age and the fact that it is still in use doesn't indicate an outdated, immovable, set-in-stone document rather one whose authors had the foresight to include a way to make revisions as they are needed to update the whole and keep it current with changing needs. Moving with the times is not an exclusively European virtue. It's just my opinion, but to this outsider it appears that Europe clings much more tightly to its traditions than anything in the New World (i.e. royalty, monarchies, patrimonies etc.).

MeestuhDuht, I don't understand you reference to the 2nd amendment. Could you please clarify your meaning?

Having "the oldest written constitution" does not in any way mean that it's better, just that Americans prefer to add amendments rather than rewriting the document. It's really just an editing choice.

The question doesn't say codified whatever that means in this context. Lots of the still effective parts of the UK constitution were enacted/agreed centuries before the USA even existed. Judged just against the UK, the most that could be said of the U.S. constitution is that it might be the world's oldest still effective constitution with the word 'constitution' written on it. But that doesn't work because of San Marino - whose constitution dates from 1600. So what the USA is left with is that it might have the oldest still effective constitution with the word 'constitution' written on it in English - which makes the claim, and the question, effectively meaningless.

Although France and Germany have a long history, as modern states they are relatively young. The French Fifth Republic came into being in 1958; Germany was only united into one country in 1871, and the current constitution was instituted after WWII.

Denmark's constitution was originally adopted in 1849 - before that it was an absolute monarchy.

The UK dates from 1707, with the union of the crowns of England and Scotland. It has a constitution, but not one that is written down in a single document.

England has a history of legal and constitutional development (Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, Common Law) that goes back a long way, and influenced the drafters of the US Constitution.

Middle eastern are older

According to Wikipedia, the first French Constitution was adopted in 1791, and there has been at least 13 constitutions since (the most recent one, from 1958, established the Fifth Republic).

I wouldn't say that France is young as a modern state.

Culture ≠ Country. The current iteration of China is significantly different than the China of centuries past. Ditto with India. That's not a judgement on their present or respective histories

USA wins the oldest constitution competition. U-S-A, U-S-A, ho ho ho.

Those one-eyed hooligans!

I thought it was the Cylons.

They're all different things.

Roma/Romani are a nomadic Indian people who ended up mostly migrating to Europe. They now mostly live in eastern Europe. Somewhere between .25-0.5 million of them were killed in the Holocast. They're the original "gypsies," which word possibly originates from people thinking they were Egyptian.

Most gypsies in the UK and Ireland are Irish travellers rather than Roma, although there's Roma groups too.