Politics - UK government

What does the legislative branch of government include?

Parliament: House of Commons, house of Lords and the monarch

What does the executive branch of government include?

PM and cabinet (prime minister, cabinet and civil service)

What does the judiciary branch of uk government include?

Supreme Court (Supreme Court and lower court)

What is the role of the legislative branch?

• check and balance government work

• make and change laws

• oversee government spending]

• debate issues of the day

• interact with other institutions

Responsibilities of the legislative branch

• look over government work

• examine policies and keep ministers in check

• hold the powers to raise and set taxes

Powers of the legislative branch

• can pass laws and legisaltion

• House of Lords can oversee financial legislation but cannot amend or block them

Role off the executive branch

• make key decisions and run country day to day

• e.g manage economy and budget

• propose and draft laws

• conduct foreign policy and manage public service

Responsibilities of the executive branch

• directing and implementing policy

• draft laws for parliament to debate and pass

• civil service does practical and administrative work of government (managed by prime minister)

Power of executive branch

• broad power to manage public affairs

• orignally monarch but now ministers

Roles of the judicary branch

• interpret laws (read laws past and determine what the mean in real life scenarios)

• apply laws (deliver criminal verdicts)

• pushing forward common law on issues not yet covered by law

Power of the judiciary branch

• limited due to parliaments Sovereignty, can’t strike down acts from parliment

• can appeal to parliament if it judges an act has violated human rights

constitution

set of laws and guidelines setting out how a political system works and where power is located

Uk constitution : uncodified

• not set out in a single document

• derived from many written and unwritten sources

• in comparison the US is codified

Uk constitution : unentrenched

• no specific method of ammendments

• a codified constitution like the US is said to have a higher status than normal law and so is entrenched, for it to be ammended it needs a 2/3 majority in congress and a ¾ majority in states

• in the UK normal law and constitutional law are equal

UK constitution : unitary

• all legal sovereignty is contained in one place

• England, Scotland, Wales and NI are all traditionally run from Westminster

• changes to this after devolution in the 1990’s but Westminster still hold ultimate power

Twin Pillars

• AV Dicies 1885 Study of the law of constitutions is a defining authoritative work for the UK system

• proposes the system is held up by two pillars : parliament sovereignty and the rule of law

Pillar 1 : parliament sovereignty

• parliament are the legal authority in the UK, as the constitution in uncodified statute law is final

• parliament can legislate on any subject : no legal limits on what parliament can do, they can change the constitution by passing an act of law

• no parliament can bind its successor: no law a parliament makes cannot be undone by a succeeding parliament

• no external body can strike down its laws : unlike US Supreme Court the UK supreme court cannot declare a law unconstitutional, they can only interpret or apply laws

Modern challenges to parliament sovereignty

• devolution : Parliament gave lots of power to Scotland, Wales and NI. Though parliament holds official sovereignty and could in theory abolish this power it is politically almost impossible

• referendum : when the gov calls a referendum e.g Brexit in 2016 sovereignty is arguably given to the people

• The Human Rights Act of 1998 : UK judges can issue a declaration of incompatibility is a law violates human rights. While parliament can legally ignore this they politically would almost never

Pillar 2 : the rule of law

• ensures that the law is applied equally and fairly

• no punishment without trail : no one can be detained without for no reason and citizens can only be penalised if sufficient evidence is possessed and proven in an independent court

• no one is above the law: the law applies equally to everyone icluding the PM and police etc (e.g. Boris Johnson breaking covid lockdown rules)

• rights are protected by common law: fundamental liberties (e.g freedom of speech) or protect by historic rulings or independent judges. Dicey argued this was safer than writing it down on paper that the gov could just tear up

Modern challenges to the rule of law

• tension with sovereignty: as parliament can pass any law they can pass laws that undermine the Rule of Law (e.g anti-terrorism laws that can detain suspects for longer periods of time without a hearing)

• access to justice : although rule of law assumes everyone is equal in the court this is often not true especially with funding to legal aid meaning that the wealthy are able to afford better lawyers so more likely to win cases

Statute law

• laws passed by parliament, highest form of law

• e.g The human rights act 1998. The fixed term parliament act

common law

• legal principles established by judges and court rulings, includes Royal prerogative powers

• e.g The power to declare war or sign treaties. Habeas Corpus (right not to be detained without trial)

conventions

• unwritten conventions and traditions that are expected to be followed but not legally enforced

• e.g. The Salisbury doctrine(The Lords will not block the governing party's manifesto pledges) Collective ministerial responsibility. The monarch granting the royal assent bill

Authoritative work

• respected textbooks written by constitutional experts that demonstrate how the system should run

• e.g A.Vs diceys law of the constitution

Treaties

• international agreements binding the UK (e.g historical EU treaties or international law)

• e.g The european convention of human rights

the arc of power

• phase 1 : (1215-1701) power shifts from absolute monarch to parliament + judicary

• phase 2 : (1911-present) power shifts within parliament, from unelected house of lords to democratic House of Commons

Magna Carta

• 1215

• stated king was not above law

• no one can be imprisoned or stripped of rights without lawful judgment by their equal

• foundational document for Diceys law of rule, principle that monarchs power is limited and right to fair trial must be respected

Bill of rights

• 1689

• king can’t suspend laws, raid taxes or keep standing army without consent from parliament

• guaranteed free election and regular parliament

• birth of parliamentary sovereignty, establish that parliament and not king have final say on law and finances

Act of Settlement

• 1701

• parliament decide who can inherit throne, bans catholics

• judges can’t be fined by kings only by a vote in both houses

• establish principles of judicial independence, protect judges jobs and ensures they could rule against monarch without fear of being sacked

Act of Union

• 1707

• dissolve Scottish parliament and united kingdoms of England and Scotland into Great Britain, create single parliament in westminster

• creates unity state modal in Uk until devolution in 1990’s

Parliament acts

• 1911 and 1949

• removed house of lords power to veto legislation

• stopped lords interfering with financial bills

European Communities Act

• 1972

• took the UK into the EEC later the EU, European law applied in UK

• challenged parliaments sovereignty, for first time UK law could be overruled by external body, repealed during Brexit but defined constitution for nearly 50 years

themes of reform (decentralisation/devolution)

• moving power away from westminster

• Scotland Act 1998, Government of Wales act 1998 and Good Friday agreement 1998

themes of reform (democratisation)

• electoral and parliamentary reform

• making institutions more representative

• House of Lords act 1999, proportional representation in devolved assemblies

themes of reform (modernisation)

• judicary and transparency

• updating ancient structures

• constitutional reform act 2005, freedom of information act 2000

themes of reformation (rights protection)

• giving citizens explicit legal protections

• human rights act 1998

House of Lords act 1999

• aimed to democratise parliament by removing the right of aristocrats to inherit seats in the house of lords

• did remove the ability for the aristocrats to inherit seats however most of house now made up of political appointees

Human rights act 1998

• aimed to bring rights protection back to the UK so citizens didn’t have to go to the European court of human rights to fight cases

• mostly successful, allowed course to issue declaration of incompatibility if law breaches human rights however it is unentrenched so could be removed at any time

Freedom of information act 2000

• aimed end the culture of secrecy within UK government and improve transparency with public

• successfully improved gov transparency, allow public to request information freely and expose scandals to public however government still holds power to veto requests

constitutional reforms act 2005

• aimed to clearly separate the powers of government (executive), parliament (legislative) and judges (judicary)

• successful in increasing transparency of the judicary and led to creation of UK supreme court

• however due to parliamentary sovereignty it has somewhat limited power

Post 2010 reforms (coalition era)

• 2010-15

• focused on modernising parliament + democratising institutions

• FTPA 2011, selected committees, recall of MPs act 2015

• failed Lib Dem 2011 AV referendum

post 2010 reforms (conservative era)

• 2015-2024

• focused on reclaiming sovereignty executive power and election security

• EU withdrawal act 2018, dissolution and calling of parliament act 2022, repeal FTPA and return power to PM to call elections, elections act 2022 (introduced mandatory voter ID)

The Wright reforms

• 2010

• make parliament more effective

• selected committees to scrutinise gov department now elected by secret ballots and not party whips

• gave backbenchers over 35 days of parliamentary debate

Fixed term parliament act

• 2011

• remover prime minister power to call elections

• now has to be every five years

English votes for English laws (EVEL)

• 2015 repealed 2021

• gave English MP’s vetos over laws applying to England so could out veto Scottish votes

• abolished by conservative as created a two tear system

European Union (withdrawal) agreement act

• 2018/2020

• following brexit referendum these acts formally ended supremacy of parliament sovereignty gave parliament full sovereignty over all laws

The dissolution and calling of parliament act 2022 and elections act 2022

• repealed the FTPA so gave full power back to PM to call elections

• elections act made it a legal requirement for photo ID when voting

• done to try and prevent fraud however critics argue it disenfranchised marginalised voters