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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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“The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny. ”-James Madison. Fifty-five delegates, from the thirteen states, met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. The chief executive and the representatives worked to create a frame for what is now our Constitution. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways; Federalism that creates a State and Federal government, Separation of Powers that gives equal power to the three branches, Checks and Balances that create balance in the three branches by checking each other and being checked and the Small States vs the Big States ensures an equal voice for all states no matter what their size.

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When the colonists were still with Great Britain, King George III misused his power. As a result, colonists wrote the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, to the king, to state their separation from Great Britain, to form a new country, the United States of America. After creating a new country, Americans wrote the Articles of Confederation in the year 1777, which they purposely weakened central government, so the abuse of power, wouldn’t exist. This meant the states had all the power. Although this structure of government seemed great, the creators of the Articles quickly realized that with no central government, states weren’t united because they were busy on increasing the growth of only their state.

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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution is the outline our founding fathers created to describe the nature and functions of government. Its first three articles consist of a doctrine of the separation of powers, which divides the federal government into three branches: the legislative, consisting of Congress; the executive, consisting of the President; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The constitution is meant to govern the federal government while the bill of rights is meant to govern the

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The framers of the United States Constitution divided the federal government into three branches in order to provide a system of checks and balances that would prevent expropriations of power. By creating a separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches, the framers were attempting to ensure that each branch of government would be held accountable. The considerable powers granted to the president has led to controversy when the other branches haven’t been able to intervene. Specifically, the president’s power to pardon, given by Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution, has been used to help wealthy and influential criminals without compelling reason. The president’s power to pardon should be repealed from the

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The first article of the Constitution says "ALL legislative powers...shall be vested in a Congress." The second article then reads "the executive power...in a President." The third article gives the "judicial power of the United States in one Supreme Court" and "in such inferior Courts as the Congress...may establish."

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Difference Between Locke And Montesquieu

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The separation of powers has been theoritically made by Locke and Montesquieu. The text 10 AV Dicey, Introduction to the study of the Law of the Constitution (10th edn, Elibron Classics, USA, 2000) pp 39-40 11 Lord Steyn, Democracy, the rule of law and the role of judges [2006] De l’esprit des lois12 (translated in The spririt of laws) in which Montesquieu details his vision, theorizes the separation of powers from an historic example. This separation did not occur spontaneously, but very progressively. Unlikely to the image that we traditionally have, this separation of powers shows subtilities, incoherences that cast doubt on the idea of separation of powers. It used to be the King, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

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Therefore, power has been justly distributed between each division of government. Checks and balances are yet another form of separation of powers in the government. As the Constitution was initially written, there were checks and balances preventing any one branch of becoming too powerful. Since we still follow the same Constitution (with a few amendments) those checks and balances are still used.

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Separation of Powers as defined above is the doctrine contained in the Constitution that divides the US government into three branches, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary. Each of the branches has unique powers that were suited to them. Although each of the government has different tasks and functions, they all have the same power which is to check each other’s powers to secure the orderliness. But as we looked at the recent conducts of the government, there were activities that erode this doctrine. One example is the centralized administrative state.

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Title - Explain and critically analyse the doctrine of separation of powers as it applies to the UK constitution Student Number - 14019464 Module code - UJUUKK-30-1 - Constitutional and administrative law  Word Count - 2000 The separation of powers, together with the rule of law and parliamentary sovereignty is considered to be one of the most important and fundamental doctrines of the constitution of the United Kingdom. The separation of powers is a doctrine often described as the trias politica principle and it involves the allocation of powers to the three branches, namely the legislature, the executive and the judiciary and how the function between them. In this essay I have to explain and critically analyse the doctrine of the separation of powers as it applies to the UK Constitution.

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1584 Words | 7 Pages

Separation of powers refers to the idea that the major body of a state should be functioned independently and that no individual of a state should have power separately. Therefore, separation of powers means that splitting up of responsibilities into different divisions to limit any one branch from expurgating the functions of another. The intention of the doctrine is to prevent the application of powers and provide for checks and balances of governing a state. It is a doctrine of constitutional law under which the three branches of government, executive power, legislative power, and judicial power are been kept separately to prevent abuse of power.

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