UK Consitution Flashcards
What is the bill of rights?
Statement of the rights of citizens, often entrenched as part of a codified constitution
What is a constitution?
Set of laws, rules and practices that create the basic institutions ad the relationship between the different institutions and between those institutions between those institutions and the individual
What is limited government?
A system in which powers of government are subject to legal constraints as well as checks and balances within the political system
What is a codified constitution?
A single authoritative document that sets out the laws rules and principles by which a state is governed
What sort of laws are they in codified constitutions?
Fundamental law
What is fundamental law?
Constitutional law that is deliberately set above regular statute in terms of status, and given a degree of protection against regular laws passed by the legislature
How many times has the US constitution been amended since the bill of rights?
17 times
How many times has the 1958 constitution of the French fifth republic been amended?
17 times in 50 years
How can the UK constitution be amended?
Through a simple act of parliament
What are the five sources of the UK constitution?
Statute law Common law Conventions Authoritative works EU laws and treaties
An example of statute that has been of historical importance in constitutional terms?
The human rights act 1998 and the fixed terms parliaments act 2011
What is common law?
Law derived from general customs or traditions and the decisions of judges
What is an example of common law?
Royal prerogative
What can the crown do?
Appoint ministers
Royal assent to legislation
declare war
What are conventions?
Established norms of political behaviour; rooted in past experiance rather then the law.
What are authoritative works?
Handful of long established legal and political texts that have come to be accepted as the reference points for those wishing to know precisely “who can do what” under the UK constitution. E.g Walter bagehot
What are the four principles that underpin the UK constitution?
Parliamentary sovereignty
Rule of law
Unitary state
Parliamentary governments under a constitutional monarchy
What is an example of a convention?
That the monarch should not reject a bill by not giving it royal assent
What is a unitary state?
A state where sovereignty is located at the centre. Central government has supremacy over other tiers of government, which it can reform or abolish.
What is devolution?
The process by which a central government delegates power to another, normally lower, tier of government, while retaining ultimate sovereignty.
What is parliamentary sovereignty?
The doctrine that parliament has absolute legal authority within the state. It enjoys legislative supremacy.
What is Sovereignty?
Legal supremacy; absolute law making authority that is not subject to a higher authority.
What did the European communities act do?
Made Parliament subservient to European law
What is the rule of law?
Theory that the relationship between the sate and the individual is governed by law, protecting the individual from arbitrary state action.
What are the 3 main strands of the rule of law?
- no one can be punished without trial
- no one is above the law
- general principles of the constitution result from judge made common law
What are civil liberties?
Fundamental individual rights and freedoms that ought to be protected from interference or encroachment by the state
What is a unitary constitution?
Government holds most of the power, subnational governments hold very little power
What is a federal constitution?
Whereby power is shared between national and regional governments
What is a constitutional monarchy?
Where the monarch is the formal head of state but the the monarchs legal; powers are exercised by government ministers.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the UK constitution?
Strengths - adaptability
- strong government
- accountability
Weaknesses - outdated and undemocratic
- concentration of power
- lack of clarity
What were the four themes of labours constitutional reform after the 1997 election?
- modernisation
- democratisation
- decentralisation
- rights
What reforms to Rights did new labour bring in?
- HRA 1998
- freedom of information act 2000 gives greater access to information held by public bodies
What constitutional reforms to devolution did new labour bring in?
- Scottish Parliament with powers
- Northern Ireland assembly
- welsh assembly
- directly elected mayor of London and a London assembly
What electoral reform did new labour bring in?
new electoral systems for devolved assemblies, for the European Parliament and elected mayors
What power does the HRA have over legislation?
It requires all legislation to be compatible with it
What happened to article 5 of the HRA after 9/11?
Forced the UK government to request derogation (a temporary exemption) in order to allow the detention of foreign nationals suspected of terrorist activity
What is asymmetric devolution?
A form of devolution in which the political arrangements are not uniform, but differ from region to region
As a result of devolution what sort of legisalitve powers was Scotland given?
Primary legislative powers across a range of policy areas such as tax varying powers.
What is the west Lothian question?
Basically its “why should Scottish MPs be allowed to vote on English matters but not the other way round”
What is quasi federalism?
Where the state has features of unitary and federal state
