What are the three basic underlying principles of the british consitution?
1. The seperation of powers 2. The supremacy of parliament 3. The rule of law
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What primarily is a constitution?
a set of rules specifying how a country should be governed
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What five things should a constitution contain?
1. relationship between parts of state 2. length of time between elections 3. relationship between government and citizens 4. rights and duties of the citizens 5.powers a government has in state
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What do consitutions set out?
the general principles around who make law and how the power should be allocated amongst the main institutions of state: the judiciary, government and parliament
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What type of constitution do most countries have?
a written constitution
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What is a written consitution?
a single legal document that sets out in one place the fundemental laws outlining how the state works
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What type of unusual consitution does the uk have?
an unwritten consitution
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What is the uk's consitution based on?
the 'golden principle' which is that we are free to do anything unless forbidden by law
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what 6 sources do our constituional rules come from?
1. acts of parliament 2.common law 3.conventions 4.works of authority 5.royal perogative 6. EU
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What is thre uk's primary legislation and example?
acts of parliament (statutes) eg.housing act 2004
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What is the uk's secondary legislation and when should it only be used?
judicial decisions, common law. only when there is no relevant legislation
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What are conventions? and example
traditions that have been followed over time eg. if MP makes mistake but refuses the step down their postion is automatically weakened
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what are works of authority? and example
from famous writers or comentators eg. a.v.dicey expressed views on how a country should be run
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what is royal perogative? and example
the monarch can make emergency decisions/laws eg. going to war
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what is an example of european law we have to follow?
human rights
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Who was the seperation of powers developed by?
Montesquieu
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Who was montesquieu?
an eightenth century french philosopher
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What is the basic idea of the seperation of powers?
that all three arms of state should be seperate
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What are the three arms of state?
executive judiciary legislature
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What does the executive arm do?
its the administrative arm - responsible for the day to day running of the country
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who is the executive in the uk?
the cabinet
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what do the judiciary arm do?
its the lae enforcing arm - responsible for applying our countries laws
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who is the judiciary?
the judges
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what does the legislature do?
makes law
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who is the legislature in the uk?
parliament
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What did montesquieu believe an overlap would lead to?
abuse of power
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other than abuse of power why did montesquieu think it was better for the arms to have no overlaps?
so each arm specialises in one area and is good at it - ie, has the specific skills
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What primarily is a constitution?
Back
a set of rules specifying how a country should be governed
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