State Organs

The constitutional principles, rules and practices of the United Kingdom have never been codified; they derive from statute law, from common law, and from conventions of the constitution, which are not laws at all, but political practices which have become considered as dispensable to the smooth working of the machinery of government. The monarchy, followed by the legislative, executive and judicial organs of government will be discussed in turn.

a. The monarchy is the most ancient secular institution in the United Kingdom, with a continuous history stretching back over a thousand years. The monarchy is hereditary and the present title to the Crown derives from provisions of the Act of Settlement of 1701 which secured the Protestant succession. Queen Elizabeth II, who succeeded to the throne in 1952, is, in addition to being an integral part of the legislature, the head of the judiciary, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Crown and the temporal head of the established Church of England. The monarchy in the United Kingdom has evolved over the centuries from absolute personal authority to the present constitutional form by which the Queen reigns but does not rule. Her Majesty's government governs in the name of the Queen who must act on the advice of her ministers. The Queen summons, prorogues (dismisses at the end of a session) and dissolves Parliament; she usually opens new sessions of Parliament with a speech from the throne in which the major governmental policies are outlined.

b. Legislature. - Parliament is the legislative organ and is constitutionally composed of the Monarch, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. The Queen in Parliament represents the supreme authority within the United Kingdom.

The Parliament Act, 1911 provides that the life of one Parliament may not exceed five years. Parliament consists of two Houses: the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

The House of Lords is for the most part still a hereditary body. It consists of the Lords Temporal and the Lords Spiritual.The Lords Temporal include hereditary peers and peeresses, life peers and peeresses created by the Crown under the Life Peerages Act, 1958 in recognition of public service; and the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. The House of Lords is presided over by the Lord Chancellor who is ex officio chairman of the House. The Lords Spiritual include the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester, and the 21 most senior diocesan bishops of the Church of England.

The House of Commons is an elected and representative body; members (at present 650) are elected by almost universal adult suffrage to represent constituencies in England (523), Scotland (72), Wales (38) and Northern Ireland (17). Any British subject aged 21 or over, not otherwise disqualified (as for example, members of the House of Lords, certain clergy, undischarged bankrupts, civil servants, holders of judicial office, members of the regular armed services and the police forces) may be elected a Member of Parliament (M.P.). Members are paid a salary and an allowance for secretarial and office expenses; after a Parliament is dissolved all seats are subject to a General Election. By-elections take place when a vacancy occurs during the life of a Parliament, as when a member dies, is elevated to the House of Lords or accepts an 'office of profit' under the Crown.

The Speaker of the House of Commons is elected by the members from the members to preside over the House immediately after each new Parliament is formed. He is an impartial arbiter over Parliamentary procedure and the traditional guardian of the rights and privileges of the House of Commons.

The supremacy, or sovereignty, of the United Kingdom Parliament is probably the most basic principle of British constitutional law. Parliament has of its own will settled the duration of the life of a Parliament, acts in such a way as not to bind its successors in the manner or form of their legislation, and, in the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 has provided that in certain circumstances a Bill may become law without the concurrence of all the component parts of Parliament. These two Acts have clarified the supremacy of the House of Commons over the House of Lords, which can only delay the passage of Public Bills for a maximum period of one year and cannot delay at all the passage of Money Bills (financial measures).

Дата добавления: 2014-12-17