Outlines of constitutional law

(AFTER CHALMERS AND ASQUITH’S)

Ø 1) Look through the text and make a supposition which category of readers it will be interesting for. Prove your supposition.

Ø 2) Read the text and find the sentences which explain the following:

a) “unwritten Constitution”;

b) “flexible” Constitution;

c) theory and practice concerning English constitutional law are divergent;

d) differences between the English and American Constitutions.

To understand English constitutional law it is necessary to study numerous documents, including constitutional treaties like the Bill of Rights, various statutes and judicial decisions and others. But the whole of the Constitution of Britain will not be found in any of these documents. The English Constitution, though partly written, is yet to be regarded as “unwritten” from the standpoint of constitutional lawyers, as it is not codified as a whole in any particular document or documents. The English Constitution is considered to be flexible because Parliament can “make or unmake” any law by the same procedure and with the same ease.

The Constitution is not the source of the law, but the law gives birth to the Constitution.

Though the King (Queen) is the nominal Sovereign, any particular Parliament during the period of its existence is legally supreme.

In England the rights of the subject are mostly deduced from actual decisions in which remedies have been afforded for their invasion. Thus it is sometimes said that under the English Constitution the remedy precedes the right.

In administering justice the Judges enjoy little arbitrary power. The law which they administer is defined by statutes and other documents having statutory validity, and by judicial precedents.

England is the only country possessing hereditary legislators.

Theory and practice concerning English constitutional law are divergent, as it is seen from the following illustrations:

· In theory the Sovereign is to be an active party to the making of laws, but in practice he has a shadowy veto.

· In theory every Lord of Parliament is a Judge of the House of Lords, entitled to take part in appeals from the lower Courts; in practice he always absents himself unless qualified by statute to sit there as one of the quorum.”

· In theory certain persons (e.g. Lord Moor) are invested with judicial powers at trials in the Central Criminal Court, but in practice they don’t take part in judicial work there.

· In theory certain public departments are supposed to be controlled by boards consisting of various high officials (e.g. the Board of Trade), but the real head is a single Minister of the Crown (e.g. the President of the Board of Trade).

· Finally, Legislature and Executive are joined together by a connecting chain – the Cabinet.

Certain important Conventions control the entire working of the Constitution. These Conventions relate to the duties of the King as a person, the duties of the Ministers of the Crown and so on.

Differences between the English and American Constitutions:

· In America the President is in practice more of a ruler than the English King; but his legal powers are more restricted.

· The President can veto legislation, and the English King has legally an absolute but in practice a very shadowy power of veto which has not been exercised since long times.

· The English Constitution is flexible, the American – rigid, i.e. in England all laws can be altered with ease, and in America complicated machinery is necessary for the alteration of the Constitution.

· The American Constitution is written; the English Constitution is unwritten.

· The English Crown is inherited; the American President is elected for a term.

· The American President is not dependent on the vote of the Congress; in England the Cabinet is dependent on the vote of the House of Commons. In America, therefore, the Executive is not responsible to the Legislature.

Ø 3) Say what aspects are covered as “differences” between the English and American Constitutions.

Ø 4) Find professionally-relevant terms in the text. Define them.

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