The NJ State Library’s (NJSL) Law Library New Jersey Constitutions page offers digitized access to the three historic state constitutions, from the original 1776 charter, through the 1844 revision, to the modern governing document adopted in 1947 along with related convention proceedings, including amendment materials.
New Jersey State Constitution of 1947, our current Constitution
- Search or browse the New Jersey State Constitution on the Legislature’s website.
- See also the New Jersey Constitution of 1947 (full text transcription includes images of the digitized constitution, via New Jersey State Archives)
1947 Constitutional Convention Proceedings
- Volume I: Convention Proceedings Record
- Volume II: Convention Proceedings Appendix and Index to Volumes I and II
- Volume III: Committee on Rights, Privileges, Amendments and Miscellaneous Provisions and Committee on the Legislative Record
- Volume IV: Committee on the Judiciary Record
- Volume V: Committee on Executive, Militia and Civil Officers, Committee on Taxation and Finance, Committee on Submission and Address to the People, Record, Index to Volumes III, IV and V
- New Jersey Constitutional Convention Proceedings 1947 Searchable Database (via NJSL)
See also
- other related documents
- digitized NJ Constitution documents and materials
- Constitutional Amendments
- searchable version of the New Jersey Constitutional Convention Proceedings 1947
New Jersey State Constitution of 1844
- The Constitution of 1844 (full text transcription includes images of the digitized constitution, via New Jersey State Archives)
- The Constitution of 1844, including amendments from 1875 and 1897 (via HathiTrust, published in a 1906 edition and 1910 edition)
1844 Constitutional Convention Proceedings
- Journal of the proceedings of the Convention to form a constitution for the government of the state of New Jersey; begun at Trenton on the fourteenth day of May, A. D. 1844, and continued to the twenty-ninth day of June, A. D. 1844 (via Google or Archive.org)
New Jersey State Constitution of 1776
The Constitution of 1776 (full text with images, via New Jersey State Archives)
1776 Constitutional Convention Proceedings
Journal of the Votes and Proceedings of the Convention of New-Jersey. Begun at Burlington on the Tenth of June 1776, and thence continued by adjournment at Trenton and New-Brunswick, to the Twenty-first of August following (access via Archive.org)
Further Reading on NJ Constitutional History
- State Constitutions Illustrated: New Jersey (collection of digitized legal materials from the HeinOnline database)
- The Early Constitutions of New Jersey by Edward Q. Keasbey, 1 New Jersey Law Review 20, May 1915.
- “Traces of Its Labors”: The Constitutional Commission, The Legislature and Their Influence on the New Jersey Constitution, 1873-1875 by Peter J. Mazzei and Robert F. Williams, Office of Legislative Services, 2012
- Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of New Jersey, 1664-1964 by Julian Parks Boyd (via our Jerseyana Digital Collection)
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