constructive

Relating to or causing construction.

Carefully considered and meant to be helpful.

Serving a useful purpose.

Deemed after the fact to exist or to have occurred, despite the formal process not having been followed; often when there was no intention to do so at the time.

constructive dismissal

constructive notice

Not direct or expressed, but inferred.

A President's power begins slipping away the moment it is known that he is going to leave: I had seen that in 1952, in 1960, in 1968. On the eve of my resignation I knew that my role was already a symbolic one, and that Gerald Ford's was now the constructive one. My telephone calls and meetings and decisions were now parts of a prescribed ritual aimed at making peace with the past; his calls, his meetings, and his decisions were already the ones that would shape America's future.