The British Constitution Definitions

1. The ability of courts to reverse the decisions of ministers or local council if they are deemed to contavene Human rights (one example is the Tameside dispute where the courts backed up a Conservative council after a minister acted Ultra Vires) (8, 6)
7. A constitution which is relatively easy to amend because it is not written or entrenched within the country. Britain's uncodified constitution is one example. However this can be bad because it means that there are no fixed principles. (8)
8. A right that is guaranteed by legislation- for example the American right to bear arms is Entrenched in their constitution under the 2nd amendment (10)
9. the 12 Judges for the supreme court are appointed by the Judicial appointments commission. They are most often quite old white men, so many see them as not representative of the country. (8, 12)

2. A collection of states that have separate levels of government but are still governed by a larger unit. For example in America there are 50 states which all have state governments however they are ulitmately governed by the Whitehouse (7)
3. related to federal states- federal laws are only applicable in one state, but not applicable to the whole of the country. They are a good example of multi-level governance in America (7, 6)
4. A constitution that is difficult to change because the amendment process is hard and lengthy. Written constitutions such as America's are a good example of this. However this can be good because it means that no hasty decisions are made. (5)
5. A state governed as a single unit with one government. For example Britain is a unitary state because it is one state that is governed by parliament. (7)
6. More academic names for written and unwritten- Codified means that the constitution is written (eg. in America), and uncodified means that it is unwritten (eg. in Britain) (8, 10)
10. The separation of legislative (parliament), executive (cabinet) and judiciary (courts) powers so that power is dispersed in many places, not just in one constitution (10, 2, 6)

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