2008 marks the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Bermuda Constitution, and to celebrate the anniversary, The Royal Gazette's Newspapers in Education programme will run a series of six features on the Constitution and its role in the effective governing of Bermuda.

The half-page features will appear every Tuesday beginning today on Page 6.

"Bermuda took its historic step into responsible government at midnight on Friday (7 June, 1968) when the nearly 300 -year-old unwritten constitution came to an end, and the new written constitution was brought into force," declared The Royal Gazette on the front page of the June 10 edition.

The constitution, the result of a lengthy debate in London, meant a Bermuda controlled more completely by Bermudians.

The functions of Government once the responsibility of a series of Boards, were taken over by an Executive Council of 12 ministers (now known as the Cabinet) who were responsible directly to the local House of Assembly and not to the Governor.

This followed the historic General Election on May 22, the first under full universal adult suffrage and the first under a party system.

A total of 107 candidates contested 40 seats in the House of Assembly.

The United Bermuda Party had 39 candidates, the Progressive Labour Party 38, the Bermuda Democratic Party fielded 21, and there were nine Independents.

The series, produced with the assistance of Leighton Rochester and Huw Shetheard of the Attorney General's Chambers, will examine the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, the limits on those freedoms and the checks and balances in place to make government as responsible as possible.