The constitution gives the Supreme Court the power to check, if necessary, the actions of the President and congress. It can tell a President that his actions are not allowed by the Constitution. It can tell Congress that a law it passed violated the U.S. Constitution and is, therefore, no longer a law. It can also tell the government of a state that one of its laws breaks a rule in the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the final judge in all cases involving laws of Congress, and the highest law of all — the Constitution (Scholastic,
Due to the increasing presidential style of recent prime ministers and the party loyalty of the executive one can consider Parliament’s control of executive power minimal. However, due to the development of independent bodies surrounding Select Committees and the delaying of legislation by the House of Lords it can still be argued to be effective. The government usually has an overall majority. This is due to our voting system of FPTP which gives preference to the two main parties, normally giving them majorities (and increasingly large ones) as opposed to coalitions and minority governments which are produced through other voting systems such as AV in Scotland and Wales. Although we are currently in a coalition the government still has a majority through the combination of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
Parliamentary sovereignty is the most important part of the UK constitution. People often refer to the UK having an 'unwritten constitution' but that's not strictly true, large parts of it are written down, much of it in the laws passed in Parliament - known as statute law. Therefore, the UK constitution is often described as 'partly written and wholly uncodified' (Uncodified means that the UK does not have a single, written constitution.). Over the years, Parliament has passed laws that limit parliamentary sovereignty. These laws reflect political developments both within and outside the UK.
Assemblies which are also known as parliaments or legislatures provide a key role in government. They act as national debating chambers and public forums in which government polices and major issues can be discussed and analysed. In most cases they are invested with formal law-making power giving them some capacity to shape and influence public policy. However, assemblies have been criticised by Heywood (2002, p. 311) as being no more than “talking shops” that do little more than rubber stamp decisions that have effectively been made elsewhere. This essay will firstly discuss how parliamentary and presidential systems differ, the different types of legislature and their main functions.
An Overview of Congress Alicia Lafollette POL/110 8/1/2014 Mr. Steely Most everything has some kind of structure, a process, rules to abide by, laws to follow…. and our Nation’s Government is no exception. The founding fathers of our nation built congress and decided how it would be ran and what kinds of officials will manage it. The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government and consist of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The term Congress can also refer to a particular meeting of the legislature.
The doctrine of parliament sovereignty has been regarded as the most fundamental element of the British constitution. It can be summarised in three points: that parliament has the power to make any law they wish; that no parliament can create a law that a future parliament cannot change; that only parliament can change or reverse a law passed by parliament. Parliamentary Sovereignty thus gives unconditional power to the Westminster Parliament. A.V. Dicey describes it as ‘the dominant characteristic of our political institutions',and ‘the very keystone of the law of constitution'.
1. Essay Read the following quotation: The constitution is work of many interpretations. The legal system have their interpretation, and so does scholars and the general public. However, the true meaning of the Constitution seems to get lost in the mix of other people’s understanding of it, “The emphasis on historical and theoretical precision sometimes leads us to forget that the Constitution was the work of statesmen and politicians, not philosophers and theorists." (Ivers.
The Legislative Branch consists of the Senate and House of Representatives. Checks and balances create independence amongst the Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches of the U.S. government. Examples of checks and balances include the Presidential veto of a Congressional bill, the Congressional impeachment of the President, or the Judicial ruling of Congressional laws that violate the U.S. Constitution. Each branch has its own actions and rules of conduct, giving them the freedom to legally operate without limitation from another branch. Each part of the U.S. government is limited in their power as given by the Constitution.
The main job of Congress is to create laws. The Senate has the power to impeach officials and approve treaties, and the House of Representatives have the power to draft spending bills. The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s job is to interpret the Constitution, review laws to make sure they are constitutional, and determine the outcome of cases involving the rights of states.
Congress Congress is defined as the national legislative body of the United States consisting of the Senate, or upper house, and the House of Representatives, or lower house as a continuous institution. The purpose of Congress is to write up bills, debate if the bill should be passed, and then take a vote whether to pass the bills on. Once a bill is voted for it is then sent to the President for the final decision. So basically, the purpose of Congress is to pass laws and also to keep the other two branches of government in check. The Senate, or upper house, is defined as an assembly or council of citizens having the highest deliberative functions in a government, especially a legislative assembly of a state or nation.