Question

Define the constitution and discuss its role in a country

Answer 1

▄︻̷̿┻̿═━一Constitution Of A Country☜☆☞


The constitution of a country is a set of rules regulating the powers of its government and the rights and duties of its citizens. Many nations have been forced to draw up a written constitution in response to a revolution, war or as a step towards independence. In contrast, the United Kingdom which has had a relatively stable history has an unwritten constitution developed over many centuries with sources of varying importance which include statute and common law, conventions and traditions, written works of importance and international law. The UK constitution is often described as 'partly written and wholly uncodified'. A codified constitution is one in which key provisions are collected together in a single legal document.

The separation of powers is one of the pervasive principles of the UK constitution. Separation of powers is a principle set out by Charles Montesquieu where he stated that without a separation of powers there could be no liberty where liberty means ‘the right of doing whatever the law permit’. It denotes the premise that there are three main organs of government, the legislative whose function is for the making of general rules, the executive whose function is to govern according to the rules and the judiciary for resolving disputes between parties according to the law and that there should be a system of checks and balances between each branch. The most significant perceptions can be accomplished from the political philosopher John Locke who took the view that protection of the liberties of the subject required that the government: ‘ought to be exercised by established and promulgated laws; that both the People may know their duty, and be safe and secure within the limits of the law, and the Rulers too kept within their due bounds, and not to be tempted by the power they have in their hands to employ it to purposes.’ (Two Treaties on Government, Book 2 Chapter XI). The separation of powers protects liberty to avoid any concentration of power so that power cannot corrupt and it enables the citizen to be sure that the law made by the legislature will bind the executive and be applied by the judiciary. The idea of there being three different areas where the law is created is in theory so that no one function has too much power, which could lead to the power being abused and create the risk of tyranny. This concept has its fullest practical expression in the US constitution that has proven to be a stable political system, and yet there have been other Presidential systems that have been open to tyrants and dictators. If we examine the UK constitution it can be seen to have many violations of the doctrine with a weak separation of powers where the chief executive who is the Prime Minister, forms a subset of the legislature (Parliament), as did the judiciary until the establishment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and yet the Parliamentary system has proven a fairly stable form of liberal democracy. Although a fusion exists, the doctrine does not imply that the branches of government be completely independent. There are certain checks and balances which are in place, and these are mainly concerned with the limit to the exercise of executive powers. They include the independence of the judiciary, the accountability of the government to parliament, the House of Lords and the system of statute rules that have constitutional significance e.g. The European Community's Act 1972 and the Human Rights Act 1998 which has made the rights of citizens more simple and clear.

Often a written constitution will have a rigid structure that will ‘entrench’ parts to protect important values or the structure of the constitution, and can only be amended in accordance with a special procedure. In the UK all that is required for a change in any part of the law would be an Act of Parliament passed in the ordinary manner (although a change in EC law requires complex voting requirement). If a party has a majority in the House of Commons they can change the constitution. The continued legitimacy of government depends not only on what a constitution says, but also on its continued responsiveness to shared beliefs and continued popular consent, and so the UK Constitution is described as flexible. Since the introduction of devolution measures in 1997, the UK has a unitary Constitution in that the UK Constitution permits the national legislature to amend a subordinate constitution of the Scottish Parliament.