2011 - WAEC Government Past Questions and Answers - page 4

A constituent assembly or constitutional assembly is a body or assembly of popularly elected representatives composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitutional-type document. The constituent assembly is a subset of a constitutional convention elected entirely by popular vote; that is, all constituent assemblies are constitutional conventions, but a constitutional convention is not necessarily a constituent assembly. As the fundamental document constituting a state, a constitution cannot normally be modified or amended by the state's normal legislative procedures; instead a constitutional convention or a constituent assembly, the rules for which are normally laid down in the constitution, must be set up. A constituent assembly is usually set up for its specific purpose, which it carries out in a relatively short time, after which the assembly is dissolved.

The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary can also be thought of as the mechanism for the resolution of disputes. Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the judiciary generally does not make statutory law or enforce law, but rather interprets law and applies it to the facts of each case.

Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issues, such as defense, foreign relations, internal trade or currency, with the general government being required to provide support for all its members.

Depending on the country's form of government and separation of powers, the head of state may be a ceremonial figurehead or concurrently the head of government. In the parliamentary system the head of state is the de jure leader of the nation, because the leader de facto is the prime minister (the head of government).

Renunciation is the voluntary act of relinquishing one's citizenship or nationality. It is the opposite of naturalization–whereby a person voluntarily acquires a citizenship, and is distinct from denaturalization–where the loss of citizenship is forced by a state.