UK Consitution

Question 1

What is the bill of rights?

Answer 1

Statement of the rights of citizens, often entrenched as part of a codified constitution

Question 2

What is a constitution?

Answer 2

Set of laws, rules and practices that create the basic institutions ad the relationship between the different institutions and between those institutions between those institutions and the individual

Question 3

What is limited government?

Answer 3

A system in which powers of government are subject to legal constraints as well as checks and balances within the political system

Question 4

What is a codified constitution?

Answer 4

A single authoritative document that sets out the laws rules and principles by which a state is governed

Question 5

What sort of laws are they in codified constitutions?

Answer 5

Fundamental law

Question 6

What is fundamental law?

Answer 6

Constitutional law that is deliberately set above regular statute in terms of status, and given a degree of protection against regular laws passed by the legislature

Question 7

How many times has the US constitution been amended since the bill of rights?

Answer 7

17 times

Question 8

How many times has the 1958 constitution of the French fifth republic been amended?

Answer 8

17 times in 50 years

Question 9

How can the UK constitution be amended?

Answer 9

Through a simple act of parliament

Question 10

What are the five sources of the UK constitution?

Answer 10

Statute law
Common law
Conventions
Authoritative works
EU laws and treaties

Question 11

An example of statute that has been of historical importance in constitutional terms?

Answer 11

The human rights act 1998 and the fixed terms parliaments act 2011

Question 12

What is common law?

Answer 12

Law derived from general customs or traditions and the decisions of judges

Question 13

What is an example of common law?

Answer 13

Royal prerogative

Question 14

What can the crown do?

Answer 14

Appoint ministers
Royal assent to legislation
declare war

Question 15

What are conventions?

Answer 15

Established norms of political behaviour; rooted in past experiance rather then the law.

Question 16

What are authoritative works?

Answer 16

Handful of long established legal and political texts that have come to be accepted as the reference points for those wishing to know precisely “who can do what” under the UK constitution. E.g Walter bagehot

Question 17

What are the four principles that underpin the UK constitution?

Answer 17

Parliamentary sovereignty
Rule of law
Unitary state
Parliamentary governments under a constitutional monarchy

Question 18

What is an example of a convention?

Answer 18

That the monarch should not reject a bill by not giving it royal assent

Question 19

What is a unitary state?

Answer 19

A state where sovereignty is located at the centre. Central government has supremacy over other tiers of government, which it can reform or abolish.

Question 20

What is devolution?

Answer 20

The process by which a central government delegates power to another, normally lower, tier of government, while retaining ultimate sovereignty.

Question 21

What is parliamentary sovereignty?

Answer 21

The doctrine that parliament has absolute legal authority within the state. It enjoys legislative supremacy.

Question 22

What is Sovereignty?

Answer 22

Legal supremacy; absolute law making authority that is not subject to a higher authority.

Question 23

What did the European communities act do?

Answer 23

Made Parliament subservient to European law

Question 24

What is the rule of law?

Answer 24

Theory that the relationship between the sate and the individual is governed by law, protecting the individual from arbitrary state action.

Question 25

What are the 3 main strands of the rule of law?

Answer 25

- no one can be punished without trial - no one is above the law - general principles of the constitution result from judge made common law

Question 26

What are civil liberties?

Answer 26

Fundamental individual rights and freedoms that ought to be protected from interference or encroachment by the state

Question 27

What is a unitary constitution?

Answer 27

Government holds most of the power, subnational governments hold very little power

Question 28

What is a federal constitution?

Answer 28

Whereby power is shared between national and regional governments

Question 29

What is a constitutional monarchy?

Answer 29

Where the monarch is the formal head of state but the the monarchs legal; powers are exercised by government ministers.

Question 30

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the UK constitution?

Answer 30

Strengths - adaptability - strong government - accountability Weaknesses - outdated and undemocratic - concentration of power - lack of clarity

Question 31

What were the four themes of labours constitutional reform after the 1997 election?

Answer 31

- modernisation - democratisation - decentralisation - rights

Question 32

What reforms to Rights did new labour bring in?

Answer 32

- HRA 1998 | - freedom of information act 2000 gives greater access to information held by public bodies

Question 33

What constitutional reforms to devolution did new labour bring in?

Answer 33

- Scottish Parliament with powers - Northern Ireland assembly - welsh assembly - directly elected mayor of London and a London assembly

Question 34

What electoral reform did new labour bring in?

Answer 34

new electoral systems for devolved assemblies, for the European Parliament and elected mayors

Question 35

What power does the HRA have over legislation?

Answer 35

It requires all legislation to be compatible with it

Question 36

What happened to article 5 of the HRA after 9/11?

Answer 36

Forced the UK government to request derogation (a temporary exemption) in order to allow the detention of foreign nationals suspected of terrorist activity

Question 37

What is asymmetric devolution?

Answer 37

A form of devolution in which the political arrangements are not uniform, but differ from region to region

Question 38

As a result of devolution what sort of legisalitve powers was Scotland given?

Answer 38

Primary legislative powers across a range of policy areas such as tax varying powers.

Question 39

What is the west Lothian question?

Answer 39

Basically its “why should Scottish MPs be allowed to vote on English matters but not the other way round”

Question 40

What is quasi federalism?

Answer 40

Where the state has features of unitary and federal state