Public Law - Classifying Constitutions
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 11-11-20 00:47
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- Classifying constitutions
- Written/Unwritten
- Written
- State will have its constitution set out in single document
- Document will contain fundamental laws of constitution and define powers of different branches of state.
- May also contain Bill of Rights setting out fundamental civil liberties to be enjoyed by citizens of state
- Unwritten
- A state with this will not have its constitution set out in a single authoritative document
- Constitution will be made up of a number of different sources, such as statute and case law.
- Written
- Republican/Monarchical
- Republican
- Will usually have democratically-elected president as its head of state
- Monarchical
- Will have an unelected monarch as head of state
- Although monarch's role may be largely ceremonial
- Will have an unelected monarch as head of state
- Republican
- Federal/Unitary
- Federal
- Will have division of power between central government and regional government
- Unitary
- Will have single sovereign legislative body, with power being concentrated at centre
- Federal
- Rigid/Flexible
- Rigid
- Constitution is said to be 'entrenched'
- May be changed only by following special procedure
- Most states with written constitutions tend to be rigid
- Flexible
- Constitution which is comparatively easy to change
- because no special procedures are necessary for constitution to be amended.
- Constitution which is comparatively easy to change
- Rigid
- Formal/informal separation of powers
- Formal separation of powers
- Has clear separation both of functions and personnel between executive (ie. government), the legislative (ie. parliament) and judicial (ie. the courts) branches of state
- Informal separation of powers
- Likely to have significant degree of overlap in terms of functions and personnel between executive, legislative and judicial branches of state.
- Formal separation of powers
- Classifying UK constitution
- unwritten
- No single authoritative written document setting out how government should operatie and rights of individual citizens
- Made up of variety of different sources
- Monarchical
- Head of state is Queen
- Unelected and head of state by virtue of her position within Royal Family
- Head of state is Queen
- unitary
- Parliament is supreme (or sovereign) law-making body and other law-making bodies within UK
- e.g. Scottish Parliament or local authorities
- Derive their law-making powers from powers they have been given by Westminster Parliament
- Arguably, devolution has given UK some quasi-federal characteristics
- Parliament is supreme (or sovereign) law-making body and other law-making bodies within UK
- flexible
- due to be unwritten
- legally constitution may be changed quite easily because no lengthy or complex procedure
- Largely informal separation of powers
- No formal mechanism by which branches are kept separate
- Degree of overlap between both in terms of function and personnel
- Little separation of powers under UK constitution because no written constitution to strictly separate membership and functions of each branch of state
- unwritten
- Written/Unwritten
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