Evaluate the impact of European law on English law This essay will outline and discuss the impact of the European Union has over the English law and the decisions made. Parliamentary Sovereignty is what makes parliament the high supreme authority regarding legal issues in the UK and can also create or take away any given law. Parliamentary sovereignty is ultimately the most vital part of the UK constitution; the UK constitution is referred to as being partly written down due to it not really existing in a single test. Parliament over the years have passed laws to limit the application of Parliamentary Sovereignty, these laws include: The human rights act 1998 The UK’s entry to the European Union in 1972 The devolution of power to bodies like the Scottish parliament and welsh assembly The decision to establish the supreme court in 2009, which ultimately put an end to the House of Lords being the final court of appeal. Parliament can still undermine any of the laws which implement these changes, therefore these developments do not fully undermine parliamentary sovereignty.
Does the UK need a codified constitution? Arguments for: Executive power There is too much power vested in the executive. A new constitutional settlement is, therefore, needed to disperse power more widely. The separation of powers between the executive and the legislature has been gradual eroded. A conservative, not normally an enthusiast for dramatic reforms, accepted that this was a problem in 1976.
Within many generations our structure of culture has been changing and different philosophies of our government have formed. The Bill of Rights was created because many congressional delegates feared that the new central government would lead to the same powerful government and oppression they have just overthrown. The Bill of Rights was a response to the British actions during the colonial period. The new American settlers brought with them a desire for democracy and openness. The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments which contains procedural and substantive guarantees of individual liberties and limits.
There has been a variety of constitutional reforms set up since Blaire’s election into government in 1997, ranging from matters concerning Westminster to legislature, these reforms however have been of mixed impact. One reform set up in 1998 was the human’s rights act. This made it impossible for government to pass legislature unless it fitted with the convention signed by the British Government in 1950. This reform was of great impact as it meant all legislation passed by Westminster and all devolved assemblies must have been given a compatibility declaration from the European Court of Human Rights. This led to the passing of key legislation such as The prevention of terrorism act 2005 and the Criminal justice act 2003 both of which made a great impact on the electorate.
Therefore, despite the argue amount of agreement regarding the ends they would like the country to reach, the means with which they want to do this remains controversial. Before this though, mainly during the 1970s and 1980s, after World War II and the One Nation conservatism that followed however, UK politics was adversarial, the strongly Right winged ideology of Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives against the strongly Left winged views of Labour - both parties fiercely disagreed upon policy and how best to govern Britain. It was only when Tony Blair became Labour Prime Minister in 1997 that Britain's politics became consensual once more after the Thatcher era, with Blair moving of Labour more to the centre ground leading to a large degree of overlap with the Conservative viewpoint and also the Liberal Democrats after becoming an influential party again. Something all 3 main parties disagree on is cutting benefits. The conservatives and Liberal Democrats want to cut family tax credit and other such benefits after a family’s 2nd child to stop people having 7 or 8 children that they cannot support themselves.
Balance of power and natural rights were also ideas birthed during this period. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense embodies each of these ideas from the Enlightenment period. These ideas helped him not only create this literary work, but were the bases and formulation in which he wrote it. The first key idea from the Enlightenment period embraced in Paine’s writing is the idea of freedom from oppression. He tells a brief story of how the British government is being unfair, and treating its people poorly by taxation and other unjust tactics.
Assess the claim that the most important reason behind the passing of the 1867 Reform Act was political expedience. Many reasons contributed to the passing of the 1867 Reform Act, most revolving around the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Benjamin Disraeli, who put forward the bill. One of the main factors was indeed political expedience, an action Disraeli would have taken to gain the advantage in the Commons over Gladstone. However, the social unrest and frequent protests at the time were another significant factor, pressuring Disraeli into implementing reform, to which he responded. Of course, the ineptitude of the opposition was also key, many Liberals in particular had the opportunity to humiliate Disraeli but failed to do so, meaning his reputation was perhaps far more positive post-reform than it ought to have been.
“The Right to Bear Arms and Popular Sovereignty,” article is by Charles C Cooke. In this article he is talking about the importance of British tradition that was the right to bear arms which is an essential right in any free society. But however most countries have removed this right, Cooke believes that the United States should take action to keep this right in process. This article was published in National Review and Cooke being the writer at National Review. Who graduate from the University of Oxford where he studied modern history and politics.
The labour forces foreign secretaries have used this as a means to extend the awareness of globalisation and the benefits it entails. But the concentration of the government on non domestic affairs has had some negative backlash. It has had a remarkable impact on local elections as there has been an increase in the amount of supporters for the British National Party which is seen as a racist party this is a harsh blow to the government. An increase in support for the BNP is a step in the wrong direction, however this may not be purely the result of globalisation and other factors may have been involved. Yet the process does have a significant impact on UK politics.
The problem might be structural rather than political. The problem is the underlying document-our written Constitution. Changing the structure of our system is difficult and only made more so because of our flawed understanding of our own history, especially the origins of our founding document. The structure of our Constitution gives us profound insights about what the founders thought was important. Article I of the Constitution concerns the Legislative branch.