State – (a) Independent country; semi-independent section of a federal country (such as the USA); (b) government of a country. P.H. Collin Dictionary of LAW

TASK II Read the following and analyse the given approaches to state:

Broadly speaking the state means the supreme government within a community, but the term is also used to describe an independent country within the international community, the term “state” derives from “status” or “estate” and originally meant rank or position. The modern nation state, based on a concept developed in ancient Rome, emerged throughout Europe in the sixteenth century for military purposes following the collapse of the unifying authority of the Catholic Church. The seventeenth century civil war between the Crown and Parliament arose out of the Stuart kings” radical claim that the monarch embodied the state. The victory of Parliament in 1688 under the banner of the traditional constitution helps to explain why, during an era of great political change, Britain did nit follow the model of other European countries, most of which were absolute monarchies until the nineteenth century.

The state can be regarded as merely a body of people issuing orders, its function being to provide services for the public. What is special about the state is the Hobbesian notion that the state must be accepted by the community as having a monopoly of physical force either directly or indirectly, as when it permits the use of force by others in selfdefence.

The terms “state” and “nation” overlap. The state is a legal and political concept. A nation is a cultural, political and historical idea signifying a homogenous geographical community represented possibly but not necessarily by a common language, religious or political tradition.

In English law the terms “Queen”, “Crown” and “State” are used fairly indiscriminately. For example references are made to secretaries and ministers of state but also to ministers of the Crown. Thus there are state schools, state papers and state secrets on the one hand and National Insurance and the National Health Service on the other. The courts are the Queen’s courts, law are made by the Queen in Parliament but civil servants are servants of the Crown. Central government property is Crown property unless it is owned by an incorporated government department such as the Ministry of Defence. There are H.M. prisons, H.M. Post Office, H.M.Ships but the Crown Prosecution Service.

In “statist” constitutions such as those of France and Germany, the various departments of government, and indeed the law itself, emanate from a single monolithic state created by law and whose powers are defined and limited by the law (rechtstaat). All public officials are servants of the state. In statist theory a constitution arises from the act of a “constituent power” which might for example be a revolution or a referendum of people. The constituent power creates the constitution which in turn creates the state and authorizes the enactment of ordinary laws in a logical self-contained hierarchy.

By contrast, English law does not recognize the state as a legal entity in its own right, but regards government as comprising a number of different legal entities, Parliament, the Crown, local authorities, the police etc. each of which is linked to the others by pragmatic rules and practices. The common law is said to derive from community values rather than the will of the state, although today, with the law dominated by the legal profession with its network of links with government, this may be unreal.

The term “state” is sometimes used in UK legislation where its meaning depends on the particular context. Sometimes state means the executive arm of government, sometimes the government as a whole, and sometimes the “sovereign power”.

Lord Devlin described the state as “the organs of government of a national community”. Lord Reid on the other hand thought that “the organised community” was as close to a definition as one can get. There is a crucial ambiguity here as to whether “the interests of the state” are taken to be the interests of the government as such or include the broader interests of the people, usually expressed by the term “public interest”.

TASK III a) Look up the usage of “ government ” in the following word combinations:

Adjectives + government: central, federal, local, national, regional, Labour, Conservative, French Western, etc, left-wing, right-wing, coalition, minority, interim, successive, transitional, democratic, representative, republican, supreme, firm, good, strong, weak.

Verb + government: elect, form, install, swear in, head, run, bring down, destabilize, oust overthrow, topple.

Government + verb: come to power, take office, fall, resign, announce sth, introduce sth, launch sth.

Government + noun: agency, body, department, enterprise, institution, office, service, funds, loan, money, paper, aid, assistance, approval, backing, funding, grant, subsidy, support, contract, credit, expenditure, spending, cuts, intervention, involvement, employee, minister, official, representative, spokesman, sources, crisis, figures, statistics, post, reshuffle, activities, decisions, functions, bills, legislation, measures, plans, policy, programme, proposals, report, propaganda.

PHRASES: a branch of government; a change of government; the government of the day; a form of government; system of government; the sitting government; the composition of the government.

2) the usage of “state” in the following word combinations:

Adjective + state: independent, nation, sovereign, foreign, democratic, one-party, welfare, socialist, totalitarian, member, powerful, strong, weak, neighbouring etc.

State + noun: enterprise, monopoly, control, ownership, property, sector, system education, school, aid, funding, funds, subsidy, support, benefit, pension, intervention, spending, employee, secretary, interests, secret, security, boundaries, debt, planning, succession, visit, etc.

PHRASES: affairs/matters of state; head of state, a secretary of state, crimes against the state; etc.

b) Use “ state ” or “ government” in the following sentences:

1. A new labour... came to power in the UK in 1997.

2. The president dissolved the assembly and swore in an interim....

3. Since then... intervention in the spheres of health, employment, education and social security has become far-reaching.

4. Successive... assumed additional responsibilities in relation to economic planning, transport facilities, fuel and power supplies, housing, agriculture, protection of the environment, and so on.

5. Sovereignty is sometimes used to mean the highest legal authority, for example, the head of....

6. Sovereignty also means the independence of a... in international law.

7. The doctrine of the separation of power means that... power should be divided up and each branch of government checked so that no one body can dominate the others.

8. The Torture Convention requires a... either to prosecute or extradite an alleged offender.

9. Under the rule of law even the most despotic and self-interested... is compelled to behave justly, in the sense that it must make rules and generally keep to them.

10. The basic legal relationship between the... and the individual is one of Crown and subject, involving the concept of allegiance.

11. A passport issued by the Crown in its discretion requests other...s to admit the holder.

12. The opposition has a constitutional duty criticise the...but by definition the opposition is a minority and may be in disarray for several years after an election defeat.

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