TOPIC 4: POLITICS AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM

Question 1

POLITICAL LEGAL POWERS

Answer 1

Vertical: about the relationship of a central government to other, more localized institutions of government.

Horizontal: the relationship between the legislative, executive, and judicial responsibilities also known as the Separation of Powers or Check and Balances.

Question 2

THE SEPARATION OF POWERS:
The ‘separation of powers’ varies significantly both in theory and practice, and in the West and beyond, but we might usefully distinguish between:

Answer 2

Legislature
Executive
Judiciary

Question 3

THE BRANCHES OR POWERS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS

Answer 3

1. Legislative power
   – is the power to make laws.
   - this power is exercised by the legislature, made up members of the parliament

Question 4

What is a parliament?

Types of Parliament?

Answer 4

A parliament is a body of elected representatives that makes laws on behalf of the citizens.

i. Bicameral – consist of two houses/chambers, each of which must vote upon and pass the law for it to be valid. If there are two chambers the Lower Chamber (Legislative assembly) is based on population and the Upper Chamber (Legislative council) represents territories or selected groups. By tradition and because it is more representative, the Lower chamber is more powerful
ii. Unicameral – consist of one house. Often consists of a multiparty government made up of the government and the opposition.

Question 5

What is Executive Power?

What are the functions of this power?

Answer 5

• Is the power to administer the law
• Exercised by the executive government, Prime Minister and other ministers, premier, Chief Minister, etc)

Roles:

i. is to be responsible for the day-to-day governance of the state
ii. The executive proposes most of the legislations to be passed by the legislature,
iii. manages the states relationships with other states and
iv. Oversees various departments of the public service.

Question 6

Judiciary Power and its roles?

Answer 6

• Judicial power is the power to interpret the law.
• It is exercised by the judiciary, that is the system of courts
Roles:
• In some countries the judiciary is limited only interpretation of laws
• In other common law legal systems, the judiciary plays a more active role in the creation of law by the way of the doctrine of precedent
• Has the power to declare law made by legislature to be unconstitutional and invalid

Question 7

Judiciary most important role with constitutional law?

Answer 7

Important role with the interpretation of constitutional law, power to exercise judicial/constitutional review on legislations inconsistent with the constitution

i. This may strong and binding on all governmental organs
ii. May be centralized (limited to a single court), semi-centralized (limited to court, but not all), or decentralized (where all courts conduct constitutional review)

Question 8

RELATIONSHIP OF LEGISLATURES AND THE EXECUTIVE

Answer 8

• In parliamentary systems, an election formally determines the parliamentarians; the creation of the executive – the Government or Cabinet
• First chosen, often called the Prime Minister who will serve as head of state will select the rest of the executive with the approval of legislation
• As a result, the executives make up the Legislature
• Executive is usually composed of legislators especially from the lower chamber,
• Parliamentary systems may have been approaches to the relationship between the governing majority and minority opposition (conflictual, consensus), committee systems (strong, weak, etc..)

Question 9

RELATIONSHIP OF JUDICIARY AND THE LEGISLATURE

Answer 9

INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION OF LAWS - laws made by the legislatures are interpreted and applied by the judiciary in the ordinary court systems

Constitutional review - Judiciary has power to review laws that are inconsistent with the constitution.

Question 10

COMPARATIVE PUBLIC LAW : UNITED KINGDOM

Answer 10

 Parliamentary system with an ‘unwritten’ constitution contained in numerous texts and conventions,
 a large unitary state (undergoing devolution and an EU member),
 and a relatively weak monarchy;
 the bicameral legislature is elected by plurality voting or is hereditary or chosen by the executive;
 Constitutional review is weak, decentralised, concrete and a posteriori.

Question 11

COMPARATIVE PUBLIC LAW : UNITED STATES

Answer 11

 Presidential system with a written constitution
 A large (centralised) federal state and a strong president
 The bicameral legislature is elected by plurality voting
 The executive elected by an ‘electoral college’
 Constitutional review is strong, decentralised, concrete and posteriori

Question 12

POLITICAL POWERS

Main funcitons:

Answer 12

A political party is defined as an organised group of people with at least roughly similar political aims and opinions, that seeks to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to public office.

Main functions:
- conducts campaign with manifestation to assist them to gain favor of the plural voters/citizens

Question 13

Effectiveness of POLITICAL PARTIES

Answer 13

Plurality or majority voting
- electoral process in which the candidate who polls more votes than any other candidate is elected. It is distinguished from the majority system, in which, to win, a candidate must receive more votes than all other candidates combined.
Proportional representation - an electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.