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Montesquieu, the 18th century French political theorist, developed a doctrine, first evinced in medieval Europe, that political power was too potent a force to be vested in one body or authority. So fearful was be that a despot tyrant would come to ovewhelm a kingdom that he examined the British parliamentary system and believed, wrongly, that he could discern three functions in government: law making, vested in the legislature; a judiciary which interpreted and judged the laws; and an executive which implemented the laws and performed other governmental fuctions.
He believed the three elements shold be kept seperate and his ideas were taken up by the framers of the US constitution, who built into their fledgling political system clear separation between the Congress (the legislature), the Supreme Court (the judiciary) and the president (the executive), and an eleaborate checking procedure between them, an arrangement which survives to this day. At the time he was writing, the political system in Britain (under George III) was rather different from his ideals, and this remains so today in a number of significant respects:
1. The executive or government is drawn from the legislature (the House of Common) in that the government is formed by the largest party returned to the legislature in elections. Nearly all members of the cabinet are MPs.
2. The senior members of the judiciary sit as law lords in the House of Lords, which is the highest court of appeal in Britain. (In 2003, the government initated controversial proposals to setup a Supreme Court.)
3. Cabinet minister have quasi-judicial and legislative powers, which enable them to make executive decisions without necessarily having to seek prior approval of parliament.
4. The lord chancellor used to be head of the judiciary, to appoint judges as well as QCs, to serve as a cabinet member and to preside over the House of Lords. This concentration of roles 'fused' the supposedly separate functions of government and attracted much criticism from reformers. In spring 2003 the government sought to resolve some of these anomalies by establishing: a secretary of state for constitutional affairs to take charge of the courts system instead of the lord chancellor; plans for a Supreme Court; and new procedures for appointing judges and QCs. For these reasons, there is a 'fusing' rathere than a separation of powers in Britain's political system. Despite this, advocates of the system maintain that there are extensive mechanisms of accountability and for the redress of grievance.
*Septennial Act 1716*
Act, passed by the Whigs, that extended the maximum period between elections from three to seven years. It contributed towards the greater stability of parliament and the authority of the House of Commons. The Parliament Act 1911 reduced the period to the present five years.
*Serious Organized Crime Agency*
Planned new agency announced in the white paper One Step Ahead in 2004, and presented in the media as a kind of British equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. It aim is to find the big figures who run multimillion pound drug, vice and money-laundering rackets. Organized crime is believed to cost Britain 40 billion pounds per year.
*Habeus Corpus*
An ancient constitutional rule, dating back to Edward I, whereby a person cannot be detained without due cause. The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 laid down that a prisoner must be brought before a court without delay. This rule is the citizen's guarantee against arbitrary arrest and detention, hallmarks of a civilised society which adheres to the rule of law. In practice it takes the form of writ challenging the validity of someone's detention, issued by the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division. Parliament has suspended the act in times of emergency, as in 1715, 1794 and 1817. There was much controversy about the Terrorism Act 2001, which allowed terrorist suspects to be held without trial for an indefinite period.
#seperation_of_powers
#montesquieu
கே.எஸ்.இராதாகிருஷ்ணன்.
04-09-2019
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