What is the most important responsibility of the vice president according to the constitution

President and Vice-Presidents Protocol

President 

The power and responsibilities of the President are laid out in Article 10 of the IAP Constitution. According to the Constitution the main duty of the President is to preside at the meetings of the Executive Committee and of the General Meeting, however the most important role is to lead the whole Association. The President has the over-arching guiding role over all the other positions within the IAP but remains always "first among equals".

Vice-Presidents 

In accordance with the IAP Constitution article 11.2, Vice-Presidents shall be elected from the members of the Executive Committee serving a term of three years.

The Vice-Presidents shall reside in the region they represent or if not, they shall satisfy the Executive Committee that they are in a position to represent the interests of prosecutors of their region.

The Vice-Presidents' foremost responsibility is to assist the President in discharging their duties. When necessary, the Vice-Presidents are expected to take an active role in Committees, Projects or Working Group established by the Executive Committee and shall consult with the President [and other Vice-Presidents] between Executive Commmittee meetings as needed to ensure the effective implementation of decisions and commitments of the Association.

The Vice-Presidents shall assist the President and the IAP officers in matters pertaining to the perspective regions of the Vice-Presidents. They shall take an active role in securing regions new hosts for Regional Conferences, identify topics for the conferences and work with the IAP officials in preparing the programmes for the conferences. They shall be the official IAP representatives during the Regional Conferences. The Vice-Presidents shall take a leading role in recruiting new individual and organizational members in their region and shall work closely with the IAP officials in responding to complaints against prosecutors in their region and responding to PID requests. The Vice-Presidents shall ensure that the IAP Secretariat is apprised of any development in their regions that would be in the interest of the IAP.

The role of the American vice president was the butt of jokes in earlier times, but the job has evolved to bestow more power and carry more importance.

Nelson Rockefeller at first resisted being recruited for the position, saying he was “just not built for standby equipment” before accepting the job in the middle of the crisis precipitated by the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Some people might still say that the job mostly amounts to attending funerals in place of the president, said Christopher Devine, assistant professor of political science at the University of Dayton, who studies vice presidential politics. But “times have changed. It is a really important position.”

Gerald Ford, who chose Rockefeller, illustrated just how important vice presidents can be when he moved into the top job.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, left, and President Gerald Ford confer in the Oval Office in the White House in 1974. (© AP Images)

Constitutional underpinnings

The U.S. Constitution originally envisioned a very small role for American vice presidents.

The Constitution gives the vice president the tie-breaking power in the U.S. Senate and a role as the chief presiding officer there, so the first American vice presidents spent most of their time there. “For most of the 19th century, the vice president was primarily a legislative position and presided over the Senate as a full-time occupant,” said Joel K. Goldstein, emeritus professor at the Saint Louis University School of Law and an expert on the vice presidency.

In earlier years, vice presidents were chosen to give ideological or geographic balance to the presidential nominee’s campaign for election. Those are now much less important considerations in picking a vice president, according to Devine. “Geography matters less and experience matters a lot more,” Devine said.

Growing job duties

Over recent decades, presidents themselves have chosen to broaden the job, starting with Jimmy Carter, who was elected president in 1976 as a Washington outsider. As a businessman, Carter felt the country should benefit from the person occupying the position of vice-president. He used Walter Mondale as a true partner and adviser, according to Goldstein.

Mondale, not relegated to the Senate, got his pick of prime office space in the White House’s West Wing. He could pop into the Oval Office any time he wanted to see Carter and was included in meetings and decisions. It was a radical upgrade for the office that has been continued by subsequent presidents, Goldstein said.

(State Dept./Buck Insley)

Carter was partly motivated by hearing about what happened when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945. His vice president, Harry Truman, had to be pulled aside and told of the country’s secret plan to build an atomic bomb.

“Carter thought it was simply appalling to have the person (who was) a heartbeat away not be up to speed,” Goldstein said.

The American vice president in recent administrations could be called a major understudy for the president.

The expanded role of the federal government makes having a capable successor more important than it was at the country’s dawn, Goldstein said. And modern threats mean it’s crucial to always have someone ready to step in during a crisis, he said.

Aside from breaking tie votes in the Senate and stepping in when the president can’t fulfill his responsibilities, vice presidents have developed these new responsibilities:

• They lead commissions and other efforts on particular topics as a way for the president to show focus on that area. Al Gore, for instance, led a “reinventing government” effort for President Bill Clinton.
• They travel abroad, especially when the president isn’t ready to commit to some sort of deal with another country but wants to send a high-level emissary.
• They serve as advisers whose loyalties are clearly to the president and not other groups.

“If used properly they can be a strong ally — someone who doesn’t have a piece of bureaucratic turf to defend,” Devine said.

Banner image: Senator Walter Mondale, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, left, and Senator Robert Dole, the Republican vice presidential nominee, debate in October 1976. (© AP Images)

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