The constitutional reforms of Julius Caesar were a series of laws pertaining to the Constitution of the Roman Republic enacted between 49 and 44 BC, during Caesar's dictatorship. Caesar died in 44 BC before the implications of his constitutional actions could be realized.
During his early career, Caesar had seen how chaotic and dysfunctional the Roman Republic had become. The republican machinery had broken down under the weight of imperialism, the central government had become powerless, the provinces had been transformed into independent principalities under the absolute control of their governors, and the army had replaced the constitution as the means of accomplishing political goals. With a weak central government, political corruption had spiraled out of control, and the status quo had been maintained by a corrupt aristocracy, which saw no need to change a system which had made all of its members quite rich.
Between his crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 BC, and his assassination in 44 BC, Caesar established a new constitution, which was intended to accomplish three separate goals. First, he wanted to suppress all armed resistance out in the provinces, and thus bring order back to the Republic. Second, he wanted to create a strong central government in Rome. And finally, he wanted to knit together the entire Republic into a single cohesive unit. The first goal was accomplished when Caesar defeated Pompey and his supporters. To accomplish the other two goals, he needed to ensure that his control over the government was undisputed, and so he assumed these powers by increasing his own authority, and by decreasing the authority of Rome's other political institutions. To increase his own powers, he assumed the important magistrates, and to weaken Rome's other political institutions, he instituted several additional reforms. He controlled the process by which candidates were nominated for magisterial elections, he appointed his own supporters to the senate, and he prevented hostile measures from being adopted by the assemblies.
Caesar held both the Dictatorship and the Tribunate, but alternated between the Consulship and the Proconsulship. His powers within the state seem to have rested upon these magistracies. He was first appointed Dictator in 49 BC by the Praetor (and future Triumvir) Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, possibly in order to preside over elections, but resigned his Dictatorship within eleven days. In 48 BC, he was appointed Dictator again, only this time for an indefinite period, and in 46 BC, he was appointed Dictator for ten years. In February 44 BC, one month before his assassination, he was appointed Dictator for life. The Dictatorship of Caesar was fundamentally different from the Dictatorship of the early and middle republic, as he held the office for life, rather than for six months, and he also held certain judicial powers which the ordinary Dictators had not held. Under Caesar, a significant amount of authority had been vested in both the Master of the Horse, as well as in the Urban Prefect, which had not been the case under earlier Dictators. They held these additional powers under Caesar, however, because Caesar was frequently out of Italy. Earlier Dictators, in contrast, were almost never allowed to leave Italy.