How do the rule of law and accountability operate within the United Kingdom constitution? Does the reality match your picture of how a democracy should work? Explain your reasoning drawing on relevant material you have studied. Define Rule of law. The restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws.
Constitutional construction is one mechanism by which constitutional meaning is elaborated. It works alongside constitutional interpretation to elaborate the existing constitutional order. The process of constitutional construction is concerned with fleshing out constitutional principles, practices and rules that are not visible on the face of the constitutional text and that are not readily implicit in the terms of the constitution. We can imagine a continuum of actions that political actors can take under a Constitution, ranging from policymaking to revolution. At one end of the continuum, political actors can take constitutional forms as a given and make policy decisions under it, filling government offices and exercising government power in (constitutionally) noncontroversial ways.
Arguments against adopting a codified constitution such as that it could lead to judicial tyranny are outweighed by arguments for it. However although a codified constitution may not beneficial a bill of rights would be as it would offer the protection of citizens rights, but could be written so that it wouldn’t become outdated. BODY – Codified and uncodified constitutions: A country’s constitution is often defined as being either codified or uncodified which can be said simply as written or unwritten (although no constitution is fully unwritten or written so this is not an all encompassing definition). Codified constitutions have three key features, chiefly that the document is authoritative, in that it is the highest law of the land and binds all political institutions. Another key characteristic is that it is entrenched as it is difficult to amend or abolish; there have been 27 amendments to the US constitution in over 200 years (mainly because it is extremely difficult to get both houses and the majority of states to agree on a bill).This type of constitution could therefore be described as being rigid.
The principle organ of the US state is to legislate, represent and scrutinise the other, safely separated, branches of the government. First of the three elements in which Congress’s primary role plays is in legislation. The very first article of the Constitution lays out how this is done. Bills initiated by both the President and members of Congress are almost certain to be substantially modified as they go through the legislative process, making it very difficult for the President or any political faction to force through their policy agenda. Congress has been somewhat effective in passing laws such as the PATRIOTIC Act under Bush and the Healthcare Reform Act under Obama both show’s that Congress can legislate when it needs be, especially with a majority in both houses.
In order to assess how constitutional conventions are recognised and enforced within the UK system of government, firstly, will require a look at the different definitions of what amounts to a constitutional convention, and to discuss their function or purpose, within the U.K's constitution. Furthermore, it will be necessary to identify and consider the different examples of constitutional conventions and also examine their characteristics. As way of a starting point, conventions according to AV Dicey are defined as: "conventions, understandings, habits or practices which, though they may regulate the conduct of the several members of the sovereign power…are not really laws at all since they are not enforced by the courts. This portion of constitutional law may, for the sake of distinction, be termed the 'conventions of the constitution', or constitutional morality…" This definition concentrates on what conventions are supposed to achieve. However, this view is not entirely accurate and it is important that conventions are distinguished from habits and practices.
Unlike other nations, UK does not have a written constitution (codified constitution), for example United State has a codified constitution which can always referred to their constitution, and therefore the sources like Magna Carta 1215, the Bill of Right 1688 and etc are essentially important in UK. Constitutional Convention is a set of rules and practices that define the relationship and power of those institutions of state. Due to the absence of codified constitution in UK this leads to the difficulties in identifying the constitutional sources. There are two main sources made up of the UK constitution: legal sources (statues, judicial decision and prerogative power) are the principal source and the non legal sources (convention) which primarily relates to the political rules of behaviour. To investigate the proposition there is no clear definition what amounts to a convention.
The current UK constitution has so many strengths that reform is unnecessary. Do you agree with this statement? In the UK we have an uncodified constitution, which means we have many different sources of the constitution rather than have a single authoritative document, which would be a codified constitution. The most significant source of the constitution is legislation which consists of both Acts of Parliament and lesser legislation like Orders in Council, and rules and regulation made by ministers under statutory authority. Common law, which has developed over many years becoming accepted due to court judgements.
Is the Constitutional tradition of the UK helpful or unhelpful in addressing contemporary issues of injustice in the United Kingdom? Discuss with reference to recent Constitutional developments in the United Kingdom. Constitution sort out, appropriate and control state power. They set out the structure of the state, the real state organizations, and the standards overseeing their relations with each other and with the state's nationals. In most secular countries in the world today, the Constitution serves as the highest law of the land.
A core principle of the United Kingdom’s (UK) unwritten constitution is the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty - described by British constitutional scholar Albert Venn Dicey as the ‘keystone of the law of the constitution’ . Dicey defines parliamentary sovereignty as follows: ‘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’. Dicey’s account of parliamentary sovereignty consists of a positive and a negative limb. The positive aspect is that Parliament, as the supreme law-making body of the UK, has the ability to legislate on anything it wants. The negative aspect is that once an Act of Parliament has received Royal Assent, no person or body can question its validity, not even the courts.
A closer analysis of the United States’ system of government might reveal that the Judicial Branch holds a great deal of power. One of the most significant powers of the Supreme Court is the power known as judicial review. This paper will examine the establishment of judicial review doctrine and discuss the primary functions of the concept: empowering the judicial branch, balancing the branches, and protector of constitutional liberties. The powers of the Judicial Branch are expressed in Article III of the United States Constitution. However, judicial review is not explicitly stated among