In a modern sense, parliaments and constitutions are born together as two essential elements of the liberal state. Both of course had their own ancestors – in royal advisory assemblies and in legal documents binding the monarch in some way, respectively – but both reached maturity together, mutually presupposing and reinforcing. No (modern) constitution could be recognized as such had it not provided for a representative assembly, elected by all the citizens at that time entitled to political rights. Reciprocally, no (modern) parliament could define itself as a political representative assembly without one or more fundamental charters designing its main structural and functional features, attributing to it some prerogatives, and protecting the main political rights of the citizens, such as the freedom of speech, of the press and of meeting and association, in addition, of course, to the right to vote.