Constitutions Flashcards
What does constitution mean?
Rules over how a country is governed, describing the relationship between the executive, legislative and judiciary.
What are the three constitutional priorities?
- States the limits of the government power
- Determines how political power is distributed
- Asserts and guarantees the rights of citizens
What is a codified constitution?
Is set out in a single, authoritative document.
What is an uncodified constitution?
Made up from rules that are found in a variety of sources, there is no single document.
Define what is meant by, states the limits of government power?
- establishes the competencies of government
- Keeps government within the rule of law and avoids power being used arbitrarily
Define what is meant by, determines how political power is distributed within the state?
How power is distributed between central and regional government
What are the three key features of a codified constitution?
- authoritative
- entrenched
- judiciable
What does authoritative mean?
- constitutes a higher form of law - highest law in the land
What does entrenched mean?
provisions in the constitution are difficult to amend or abolish
What does judiciable mean?
- Higher law is judiciable, meaning all political bodies are subject to the authority of the courts/the law
What does codification mean?
This means that a constitution has been written down, normally in a single document and is organised into a clear set of principles
What does flexibility mean?
Where the rules that entrench a constitution are weak.
What is a mixed constitution?
A constitution that is partly democratic and partly based on traditional rules, for example the UK.
What is statute law?
- Laws passed by Parliament
- Most important source of constitution
- can overturn other sources
- highest form of law
Examples of statute law
- Human Rights Act (1998)
- European withdrawal act (2018)
- Constitutional reform act (2005)
What is common law? (Case law)
- Consists of rules and customs which have long been declared to be law by judges in deciding cases
- Can be set aside or amended by Statute
What is the conventions?
- Key part of the unwritten elements of the constitution
- Do not have the status of law, merely a practice
Examples of conventions?
- Royal assent must be given before a bill becomes a law
- Ministers must publicly back the PM’s decisions
- Individual ministerial responsibility
What is authoritative works?
- Helps to define what is constitutionally ‘correct’
- Helps to interpret what the constitution means
- Authority comes from the esteem of the author
What are treaties?
Agreements with external bodies that bind the UK in some way
Examples of treaties?
- European Convention Of Human Rights
- North Atlantic Treaty (NATO)
What are the three strands of Parliamentary Sovereignty?
- Parliament’s laws are supreme
- Parliament can legislate on an area of policy it chooses
- No parliament can bind it’s successor
What are the challenges to Parliamentary Sovereignty?
- Increased use of referendums
- Is parliament sovereign or the government?
- Devolution
- The Human Rights Act
- Judgements of the judiciary
What do we mean by the rule of law?
The idea that the law applies to everyone equally, no one is above the law and therefore arbitrary rule is prevented and avoided by a fundamental equality
What is arbitrary rule?
A rule that is based on personal preference or discretion, rather than on logic, reason, or law.
What does de jure mean?
Legally the case
What does de facto mean?
the practical reality
Who is the head of state in a Presidential system?
president
Who is the head of state in a parliamentary system?
Monarch
How is the executive formed in a Parliamentary system?
Formed from Parliament elections and the party with the majority is appointed by the monarch. Pm appoints the government from Parliament
How is the executive formed in a presidential system?
Executive is elected by the people
How is the legislature dissolved in a presidential system?
Election terms are fixed
- House Of Representatives can impeach the president
How is the legislature dissolved in a parliamentary system?
PM decides
Who is the government accountable to in a presidential system?
The people
Who is the government accountable to in a parliamentary system?
Parliament
In a presidential system is it as single or collective executive?
single
In a parliamentary system is it a single or collective executive?
collective
Codified or uncodified, Gives extensive power to judges?
codified
Codified or uncodified? Leaves the constitutional arrangements theoretically in the hands of elected politicians
uncodified
Advantages of a codified constitution
- Clear rules, together in one doc
- Limited government, safeguards the constitution from interference from day to day government
- Education and citizenship, high educative value
- Protecting rights
Disadvantages of codified constitution?
- Rigidity, higher law is more difficult to change
- Judicial tyranny
- Legalistic, dry documents difficult to understand
