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TheGreek Constitution of 1822 was a document adopted by theFirst National Assembly of Epidaurus on 1 January 1822. Formally it was theProvisional Regime of Greece (Greek:Προσωρινό Πολίτευμα της Ελλάδος), sometimes translated asTemporary Constitution of Greece. Considered to be the firstconstitution of Modern Greece, it was an attempt to achieve temporary governmental and military organisation until the future establishment of anational parliament.
"All the indigenous inhabitants of the Greek Territory whobelieve in Christ are Greeks."
— sector Β, paragraph Β
It replaced a number of texts which had been passed by local revolutionary committees, such as theSenate Organization of Western Greece, theLegal Order of Eastern Greece and thePeloponnesian Senate Organization. These committees had formed the previous year, which saw the outbreak of theGreek War of Independence. The Constitution was mainly the work of the ItalianVincenzo Gallina and deliberately avoided theliberal anddemocratic principles of theFrench revolutionary constitutions of1793 and1795, as well as the1787 constitution of theUnited States of America. This was done in order to not alarm theHoly Alliance. For the same reason, there was no reference in the Constitution to theFiliki Eteria.
As far as the formation of two organs of the administration is concerned, a multi-central model was adopted with the composition of two annual bodies (deliberative andexecutive) which had unclearly defined and separated duties. This declaration took the official form of a constitutional text; this is the Constitution ofEpidauros, the first constitution in themodern history of Greece.
The constitution was divided into four parts and 109 articles:
The constitution is regarded[by whom?] as liberal and democratic, although it represented a compromise between the military leaders of the Revolution and the landowners, who dominated the First National Assembly. The creation of an executive and a legislature displays the desire of these two power centres to maintain a political balance. The constitutional equivalence between the legislature and the executive reflects the suspiciousness among the members of the National Assembly and resulted in theparalysis of the law-making procedure.[1] In any case, the needs and the difficulties of the revolution impeded the full implementation of the Constitution.[1]
