...United Kingdom. It dictates that Parliament can make or unmake any laws as it is the ultimate legal authority in the UK. Parliament is still sovereign as it can make law on any matter and it has legislative supremacy. However parliamentary sovereignty can be questioned due to the membership of the European Union and the Human Rights Act. Parliament can make laws on any matter due to Dicey in ‘Law of the Constitution (1885).’ He said that ‘in theory Parliament has total power. It is sovereign'. He states a number of reasons as to how this is possible. Firstly Dicey points out that Parliament can pass laws on any subject without legal restriction therefore it is sovereign. This principle is a result of the election of the Members of Parliament (MPs), by the electorate which gives them authority to represent and pass legislation on their behalf. Parliament being able to make laws on any matter can be traced back to the Bill of Rights 1689 where it was said that the monarch alone could not pass or repeal laws without Parliament's consent. Parliament is also free to modify its own makeup and authority. This is confirmed in the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 which removed the veto powers of the House of Lords and the Life Peerages Act 1958 which apart from giving the Prime Minister flexibility to modify the composition of the House of Lords introduced female peers into the hereditary and male dominated second chamber. Therefore, parliament is still sovereign because it can make or unmake...
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...To what extent is parliament still sovereign? For many years it has been argued that parliamentary sovereignty has, and still is, being eroded. As said by AV Dicey, the word ‘sovereignty’ is used to describe the idea of “the power of law making unrestricted by any legal limit”. Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution, stating that Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK, able to create and remove any law. This power over-rules courts and all other jurisdiction. It also cannot be entrenched; this is where all laws passed by the party in government can be changed by future parliaments. In recent years sovereignty of parliament has been a In 1972 the UK joined the treaty of accession, this was a statute law passed by parliament. It stated that the UK was now a part of the EU and therefore must abide by the laws and regulations that would be imposed; over 2,900 regulations and 410 directives were added, 43 volumes of the EU legislation. Due to having joined over 30 years after the initial EU was created, the UK has been made to accept laws that had been made without its input. Whereas now, having joined the EU, we are involved in in their creation - this is a key argument for why we should remain a member. Joining the EU has been agued as being a pinnacle point at which the UK lost its sovereignty, as this was the first time in the history of parliament where absolute power was no longer held. Research done by the TPA (Taxpayers Alliance)...
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...The House of Lords Act of 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords. This meant that the House of Lords could be seen as more legitimate as both unelected and not appointed peers would be seen as undemocratic and illegitimate. The removal of hereditary peers means that the House of Lords are more confident in their role in scrutinising and blocking legislation as they feel more legitimate. An example of the House of Lords exerting this role is the blocking of NHS reform which led to the government rethinking and amending plans, as well as the Hunting Act 2004. However reform of the House of Lords could be said to have not gone far enough, 92 hereditary peers still remain in the House of Lords, and the Liberal Democrats call for a wholly elected upper chamber, to make Parliament fully accountable. The House of Lords are also limited in the fact that they can only delay legislation for up to a year and therefore not able to check executive power as much as they should be able to. The Human Rights Act 1998 is another example of constitutional reform. The Human Rights Act adopted the European Convention of Human Rights and set it as UK statute law. This allows for citizens to be clearer on the rights and freedoms they possess. This was an important piece of legislation as it also provides checks to...
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...Parliamentary Sovereignty is the notion that Parliament is the highest power in the land and therefore supreme to even the Royal Prerogative. A.V. Dicey, a jurist professor explained it as: ‘The principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty means neither more nor less than this, namely, that Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever, and further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.’ Legislative supremacy involves not only the right to change the law but also that no one else should have that right, however, Parliament has, on occasion fettered itself in order to limit its own powers, for example, devolution to Scottish Parliament and Welsh...
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...Government & Politics Unit 2 * Constitution * Codified Constitution ✓ * Advantages & Disadvantages * Features * Uncodified Constitution ✓ * Advantages & Disadvantages * Features * Is Parliament Sovereign? ✓ * Arguments For and Against * Strengths and Weaknesses of the UK’s constitution ✓ * Constitutional Reforms – Coalition and 1997-2010 ✓ * What are they? * Are they effective? * PM & Cabinet * Features & Functions of the PM ✓ * What must a politician be to becoming PM * What can a PM do? * Functions of Cabinet ✓ * Factors that affect promotion and resignation of a minister ✓ * Powers and Constraints of PM ✓ * Theories of Executive Power ✓ * PM V Cabinet ✓ * Parliament * Functions of Parliament ✓ * What are they? * How effective are they? * Powers of Parliament ✓ * What are they? * How effective are they? * Parliamentary Reform ✓ * What are they? * How effective are they? * Relationship between Parliament and Government ✓ * Factors that affect it * How the coalition affects it Constitution: 2 Types of Constitution * Codified & Uncodified Codified Constitution * Constitution where the rules are written down in a single document. Example could be the USA...
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...Bill of Rights 1689 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Bill of Rights 1689 | Parliament of England | Long title | An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown. | Chapter | 1 William & Mary Sess 2 c 2 | Status: Amended | Revised text of statute as amended | The Bill of Rights | The Bill of Rights (1688 or 1689) | Created | 1689 | Ratified | December 16, 1689 | Location | National Archives of the United Kingdom | Author(s) | Parliament of England | Purpose | Ensure certain freedoms and ensure a Protestant political supremacy. | The Bill of Rights[1] is an Act of the Parliament of England passed on 16 December 1689.[2] It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 (or 1688 by Old Style dating), inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. It lays down limits on the powers of the crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament, the requirement for regular elections to Parliament and the right to petition the monarch without fear of retribution. It reestablished the liberty of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law, and condemned James II of England for "causing several good subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when papists were both armed and employed contrary to law". These...
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...institutions, the legislature, the executive, judiciary and the nature and the scope of their powers. Moreover, Bradley and Ewing have defined a constitution as ‘ a document having special legal sanctity which sets out the framework and the principle functions of the organs of government within the state and declares the principles by which those organs must operate’. (A Bradley and K Ewing, Constitutional and Administrative Law (14th edn, Pearson/Longman, 2007), p.4) [1]In the introduction of a state’s constitution, there will be a discovery of a preamble, for example, in the USA the preamble states that: ‘We the people...do ordain and establish this Constitution’. (Article 2 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution.)[2] This shows the society as a sovereign power. An important question that often rises is “Should Britain adopts a written constitution”? This has always been the topic of debate and thus very controversial. Many of Britain’s population believe that there is no important reason to form a written constitution when it has been working perfectly fine so far. Some believe that there is no much difference whether the documents are codified or not. The consequences are not huge. As long as the state is in a good shape and has a stable government, many...
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...How has Coalition Government affected Party Politics in the U.K? The arrival of a coalition government formed between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party in 2010 has affected UK party politics in various ways, the nature of which is looked into below. The governing of a country by a coalition of two political parties with differing political stances will involve negotiation between and some degree of compromise on behalf of the two parties. This is necessary in order to come to some form of agreement on key policies, such as those affecting the economy, unemployment, crime, environmental concerns, welfare, law and order and education, amongst other policy areas. The agreements reached are also, to a certain degree, in a balance of compliance with key political beliefs or philosophies of both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in terms of their respective guiding principles on areas such as social justice, the appropriate degree of state intervention and the importance of equality and availability of opportunity within society. The rise to power of a coalition government has made Consensus politics a key feature of UK party politics, since the nature of a coalition involves broad agreement on most basic policies between the two major political parties forming the coalition; the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The ability and will to negotiate and agree is of key importance if a coalition is to be able to govern effectively, in an organised...
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...Different levels of Government in the United Kingdom European Parliament The European Parliament is the only directly elected body of the European Union (EU). They have around 751 members, who are called Members of European Parliament. These are elected from all of the member states, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Members of the European Parliaments are voted every 5 years. They are supposed to represent the citizens of the European Union in the area they are elected from; so, for example this college is in the Yorkshire and Humber region and our Members of the European Parliament represents all the people in that area. The Parliament drafts European Union. These are the laws that all the countries or members in the European Union must abide from. The European Parliament also has a joint responsibility for sorting out the budgets of the European Union. Since the European Union has an annual budget of around €2.1 Billion, this is a really important responsibility, especially as the money comes from all of the member states and they will want to make sure their money is spent probably and sensibly. Central Government The Central Government is based in London in the United Kingdom at the Houses of Parliament. Parliament has 3 parts to it: The House of Commons, The House of Lords and the Monarch, all of three of these parts have to work together for decisions to be made and actions taken. Only Central Government has the authority to act on behalf...
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...Parliament: Parliament: Parliament = the legislature. It is main way in which citizens are represented. It controls the power of the government, forcing it to be accountable. Above all, Parliament exists to grant formal consent to legislation even though it is dominated by the government. Features of a Parliamentary Government: * Parliament is the highest source of political authority – political power has to be authorised by Parliament * Government has to be drawn from Parliament * No strict separation of powers between legislative and executive – fusion of powers * Government must be accountable to Parliament Features of a Presidential Government: * Legislature and executive have separate sources of power – separately elected * President is not part of the legislature * The President (and therefore executive) is accountable directly to the people, not the legislature * Clear separation of powers between executive and legislature – there is therefore codified constitutional arrangements that separates those powers What is parliamentary sovereignty? * Parliament in the UK is legally sovereign * It is the source of all political power * It may restore to itself any powers that have been delegated to others * It may make any laws it wishes and they shall be enforced by the courts and any other authorities * It is not bound by its predecessors – laws passed by parliaments in the past are not binding on the current parliament...
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...FOREWORD CHAPTER I page 7 The Terms Used to Define the Commonwealth CHAPTER II page 11 Equality CHAPTER III page18 Autonomy CHAPTER IV page 26 Autochthony CHAPTER V page 37 Membership CHAPTER VI page 42 Co-operation CHAPTER VII page 48 Symbols CHAPTER VIII page 56 Members of the Commonwealth REFERENCES page 61 FOREWORD The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-four independent member states. All but two of these countries were formerly part of the British Empire. The member states co-operate within a framework of common values and goals as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. The Commonwealth is not a political union, but an intergovernmental organization through which countries with diverse social, political and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status. Its activities are carried out through the permanent Commonwealth Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, and biennial Meetings between Commonwealth Heads of Government. The symbol of their free association is the Head of the Commonwealth, which is a ceremonial position currently held by Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth II is also monarch, separately...
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...which are continually changing. That said, we feel 2012 is unlikely to end with all the current members still being part of the Eurozone. Mapping a ‘break-up’ scenario should help readers understand how fragmentation could occur and therefore assist businesses’ contingency planning. To this end the paper highlights some key events and when they are due to take place. It also identifies some key indicators to monitor which are likely to dictate how the crisis will unfold. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A plausible scenario for Eurozone fragmentation in 2012 would see elections in Greece, France, Finland and probably Italy changing the terms of the debate to reflect frustration with economies in recession, rising unemployment and hostility to proposed or actual austerity measures. In this scenario, Greece receives an irregular rescue from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and negotiates a rescheduling of its debt in March. But once its April elections are over, the new Greek government is unable to secure bailout funds having missed austerity and reform targets, prompting a formal sovereign default. Greece announces its withdrawal from the Eurozone, closing its banking sector for a period, freezing euro denominated accounts and redenominating them as newly created drachmas. The French and German governments nationalise their weakest banks most exposed to sovereign nonpayment by Greece. This increases their own national debts and prompts a second round of downgrades...
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...answer the question with these issues in mind. According to Hendrik Jan van Eikema Hommes “if a multiplicity of legal rules displays a juridical unity, we can speak of a legal order or a legal system.” The European Union represents a supranational legal order within the specific fields delegated to the institutions and the competence of the community. This supranational federation is a new political entity which works above the individual national governments which make up its membership. The European Union is considered unique in this respect due to the level of integration which raises the Union from being merely an international agreement to being a supranational entity. Martin Steinfield describes the EU is a “federal order of sovereign states that has to grapple with legal political and economic relations in the wider world”. He also argues that “mixity” is at the heart of the European Union since the union must balance the integrity of its own new legal order against the sovereignty of member states. “Mixity” however doesn’t explain how conflict is resolved within the EU between higher policies and member states. “Mixity” doesn’t explain how the EU has attained harmony and uniformity. Supremacy, in legal and political terms, refers to the hierarchy of authority or the...
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...Comparing UK’s and Morocco’s Politics I. Introduction The United Kingdom is one of the most developed countries in the world. Many historical reasons are behind the success of this latter country; but the reason that has a special importance in my opinion is the industrial revolution. Leading the global movement of industrialization made the UK today a prosperous country. Citizens enjoy their civil liberties according to the Human Rights Act 1998 which gives further effect to the European Convention on Human rights in the United Kingdom. The Kingdom of Morocco is the most politically stable country in the Arab World. The Alaoui Dynasty reigned and governed the country for several centuries and is still the central pillar of the Moroccan state. The Monarchy is believed to be the rationale for the exceptional stability of Morocco, and few Moroccans would argue the contrary after the events of the “Arab Spring”, yet the country has a long democratization process to achieve. The constitutional reform that was launched by His Highness the King Mohammed VI is a decisive step for Morocco to become a democratic state. Comparing the political systems of the United Kingdom and Morocco is an interesting subject of study. Both countries are very old monarchies but share only some few characteristics. Throughout this essay, we will try to compare the political systems of the UK and Morocco according to the following subjects: the monarchy, the legislative, the executive, and the...
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...powerful is the UK Parliament? The Westminster Parliament is the UK’s highest political institution, making decisions on issues important to citizens throughout Britain. The Houses of Commons and Lords are responsible for passing legislation, scrutinising the government and debating issues. Retaining a high level of sovereignty despite devolution, seating dominating majority governments and possessing unprecedented constitutional flexibility, the UK Parliament wields a great deal of power. Political scientist Arend (Lijphart, 1999) first branded democracies as ‘consensual’ or ‘majoritarian.’ The UK parliament is said to be majoritarian, with a strong governing party and Cabinet, a lesser presence of small parties, minimal decentralisation,...
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