Separation of Powers

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Separation of Powers i) legislature: parliament, monarch, House of Lords, House of Commons ii) executive: sovereign, PM, cabinet and other ministers, civil service, local authorities, police and armed forces iii) judiciary: court system – state v state, state v individual, individual v individual Bolingbroke: ‘the safety of the whole depends on the balance of the parts’. Montesquieu: ‘There would be an end to everything if the same man, or the same body…were to exercise those three powers’. The UK model: evolved in 19th C under impetus of Reform Act 8132 – legislature and executive closely inter-related – Cabinet is link between executive and Parliament. Walter Bagehot in The English Constitution: “the efficient secret of the English constitution…may be described as the close union, the nearly complete fusion, of the executive and legislative powers.’ BUT Lord Diplock: ‘It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the British constitution, though largely unwritten, is firmly based upon the separation of powers; Parliament makes the laws, the judiciary interpret them’. Lord Steyn: What do we mean by the separation of powers? 1. The same person should not form part of more than one of the three organs of government; 2. One organ of government should not control or interfere with the work of another; 3. One organ of government should not exercise the function of another. How are separate roles and functions allocated between 3? Checks and balances exist between them?: Executive and Legislature i. Personnel Government (Executive) personnel come from the Legislature. Ministers of the Crown must be Members of either House of Parliament. The PM and the Chancellor of the Exchequer must be members of the House of Commons. ii. Overlap of functions Secondary/delegated legislation: laws, rules and regulations made by government departments, local
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