Proposed Constitutional amendments must be ratified by Commonwealth voters. Many provisions of the Commonwealth Constitution are mandated by the Covenant, including the bill of rights in Article I, the separate executive, legislative and judicial branches established in Articles II, III and IV, and the provision in Article XII restricting acquisition of long-term interests in land to persons of Northern Marianas descent. The original ratified 1976 Constitution (unamended) and the latest Constitution (with amendments and case annotations) is reprinted in the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Code and is also sold in pamphlet format by the Commonwealth Law Revision Commission. Their proposed constitution was subsequently ratified by Northern Mariana Islands voters on March 6, 1977, and became effective January 9, 1978. The Commonwealth Constitution was drafted by thirty-nine elected delegates meeting in a constitutional convention on Saipan in 1976.
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