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The Separation Of Powers

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“Separation of powers” introduces the concept where major institutions run by the state should be functionally independent and that no individual should have powers that cross between these offices. The principal institutions are in most cases supposed to be the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. One of the earliest and clearest statements of the separation of powers was given by Montesquieu in 1748 in his book The Spirit of the Laws:
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty... there is no liberty if the powers of judging is not separated from the legislative and executive... there would be an end to everything, if the same man or the same …show more content…

The Founding Fathers of America framed the constitution with separation of powers being designed to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist. The Constitution, consisting of seven articles (with a Preamble and 27 Amendments), outlines the national frame of government. The first three articles of the Constitution establish the separation of powers of the United States Federal Government. Article I inaugurates the Legislative branch, which includes the House of Representatives and Senate. Article I, Section 8 enumerates the financial, internal, international and military powers delegated to the legislature. The Executive branch, composed of the President, Vice-President, and the Departments, is set up in Article II. The constitution gives the executive branch the power to veto power over all bills; appointment of judges and other officials; makes treaties; ensures all laws are carried out; commander in chief of the military; pardon power. The Judicial branch, composed of the federal courts and the Supreme Court, is set up in Article III giving it the jurisdiction to try federal cases and interpret the laws of the nation in those cases; the power to declare any law or executive act …show more content…

Parliamentary sovereignty, the philosophy of the Parliament being the supreme legal authority in the UK, which can create or abolish any law, is commonly considered to be the defining principle of the British ‘Constitution’. Other core principles of the British Constitution are often believed to incorporate the rule of law, the separation of government, and the existence of a unitary state, meaning ultimate power is held by ‘the center’ – the sovereign Westminster Parliament. However, some of these principles are to an extent fictional. The separation of powers is not fully distinguished between all three branches, and the Parliamentary sovereignty may have been challenged given the joint impact of the European Union, devolution, the Courts, and human

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