<P> Activities of officials within an organization or polity that fall within the constitutional or statutory authority of those officials are termed "within power" (or, in Latin, intra vires); if they do not, they are termed "beyond power" (or, in Latin, ultra vires). For example, a students' union may be prohibited as an organization from engaging in activities not concerning students; if the union becomes involved in non-student activities, these activities are considered to be ultra vires of the union's charter, and nobody would be compelled by the charter to follow them . An example from the constitutional law of sovereign states would be a provincial parliament in a federal state trying to legislate in an area that the constitution allocates exclusively to the federal parliament, such as ratifying a treaty . Action that appears to be beyond power may be judicially reviewed and, if found to be beyond power, must cease . Legislation that is found to be beyond power will be "invalid" and of no force; this applies to primary legislation, requiring constitutional authorization, and secondary legislation, ordinarily requiring statutory authorization . In this context, "within power", intra vires, "authorized" and "valid" have the same meaning; as do "beyond power", ultra vires, "not authorized" and "invalid". </P> <P> In most but not all modern states the constitution has supremacy over ordinary statutory law (see Uncodified constitution below); in such states when an official act is unconstitutional, i.e. it is not a power granted to the government by the constitution, that act is null and void, and the nullification is ab initio, that is, from inception, not from the date of the finding . It was never "law", even though, if it had been a statute or statutory provision, it might have been adopted according to the procedures for adopting legislation . Sometimes the problem is not that a statute is unconstitutional, but the application of it is, on a particular occasion, and a court may decide that while there are ways it could be applied that are constitutional, that instance was not allowed or legitimate . In such a case, only the application may be ruled unconstitutional . Historically, the remedy for such violations have been petitions for common law writs, such as quo warranto . </P> <P> Excavations in modern - day Iraq by Ernest de Sarzec in 1877 found evidence of the earliest known code of justice, issued by the Sumerian king Urukagina of Lagash ca 2300 BC . Perhaps the earliest prototype for a law of government, this document itself has not yet been discovered; however it is known that it allowed some rights to his citizens . For example, it is known that it relieved tax for widows and orphans, and protected the poor from the usury of the rich . </P> <P> After that, many governments ruled by special codes of written laws . The oldest such document still known to exist seems to be the Code of Ur - Nammu of Ur (ca 2050 BC). Some of the better - known ancient law codes include the code of Lipit - Ishtar of Isin, the code of Hammurabi of Babylonia, the Hittite code, the Assyrian code and Mosaic law . </P>

Two of the principal concepts included in the constitution are