WK 1 - Constitutions + Constitutional Law Flashcards
Define public law
1st sense: the law involving the relationship between the state and the individual (e.g. criminal law, environmental law, housing law, tax law)
2nd sense: constitutional and administrative law
What is constitutional law?
- The structure and rules of government (legislature, executive, judiciary)
- Relationship of government institutions and the limits within which they can lawfully act
- The relationship between the individual (citizen) and the state
Define administrative law
○ Sets out laws controlling & facilitating appropriate use of executive & administrative power
○ Administrative justice (tribunals, ombudsmen)
○ Judicial review
Constitution definition
“A constitution is the set of the most important rules that regulate the relations among the different parts of the government of a given
country and also the relations between the different parts of the government and the people of the country.”
Functions of a constitution
○ creates the institutions of the state
○ regulates the relations between those institutions
○ regulates the relations between those institutions and the people (citizens) they govern
Define ‘constitutionalism’
○ limits on government
○ protection of human rights
Explain the relationship between constitutions and powers
Creates powers and limits those powers
Which three countries have uncodified constitutions?
UK, Israel + New Zealand
Explain amendment difficulty in constitutions
A rigid constitution cannot be amended in the same
way that ordinary laws are passed or amended, there are more difficult
procedures to amend it.
Name four kinds of constitutions
- Legal/political
- Sham constitutions
- Formal/material
- Ideological
Define a ideological constitution
- Liberal
- Socialist
- Authoritarian
