E-Waste

There are several differences.

The Constitution is the Supreme law of the country. It overrides all legislation in all cases and is the most fundamental law. It usually describes how the government works, what its powers are, and what rights the country's citizens have. Also, it is much harder to amend (change) than legislation. The process for amending the constitution is complicated, and usually the government cannot do it on its own. In a lot of countries, any proposed change to the constitution has to be approved by a vote from the people; in the USA, both federal and state governments must ratify it.

Legislation is the body of laws passed by the government. The government gets to decide what this legislation is, and it can be about anything at all (within the limits of the Constitution). The government can also change it at any time.

The other thing to consider is that the courts have different powers to interpret each type of law. Courts can interpret laws to see if they violate the terms of the constitution. If they do, then the law is declared invalid by the court- for example, if the US government tried to ban freedom of speech, this law would be stopped by the courts as the US constitution ensures free speech. However, courts cannot remove parts of the constitution.

Let's look at an example. Both Ireland and Australia have abolished the death penalty, but they have done so in different ways:

* Ireland has abolished the death penalty in its constitution- i.e. the constitution says that the death penalty is not allowed. This means that the government cannot pass a law that brings the death penalty back. To bring it back, it would have to propose this change to the people, who would then be able to vote to decide if they wanted it back.

* Australia has abolished the death penalty through legislation- i.e. the Australian government passed a law saying that the death penalty is no longer allowed. The government could overturn this law at any...