Unit 2 Constitutional Law and its Nature

UNIT 2

Constitutional Law and its Nature

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1) What is constitutional law? Why is it so important?

2) What does the word “constitution” mean? What is the constitution of a political community composed of?

Constitutional law is the area of law relating to the legal structure of government in a state. It defines the principal bodies of power (legislative, executive and judicial) and their relation to each other and to the individual. Constitutional law also determines the distribution of political and governmental authorities and functions.

The main source of constitutional law is a constitution. In the broadest sense a constitution is a body of rules governing the affairs of an organized group. A parliament, a church congregation, a social club, or a trade union may operate under the terms of a formal written document named constitution. In the narrow sense of the word a constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state is governed. A constitution also defines the procedure in which laws are made and by whom.

Every political community, and thus every national state, has a constitution, at least in the sense that it operates its important institutions according to some fundamental body of rules. The Constitution of India is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 444 articles in 22 parts, 12 schedules and 118 amendments, while the United States Constitution is the shortest written constitution and consists of 7 articles and 26 amendments.

Constitutions may be written or unwritten; they may be complex or simple. It is often stated that the United States has a written constitution but that the constitution of Great Britain is unwritten. This is true, but only in the sense that in the United States there is a formal document called the Constitution, whereas there is no such document in Great Britain. In fact, however, many parts of the British constitution exist in written form, whereas important aspects of the American constitution are wholly unwritten.

Constitutions, written or unwritten, can be “rigid” or “flexible”. Rigid are those constitutions at least some parts of which cannot be modified in the ordinary legislative way. Flexible are those whose rules can all be changed through the simple procedure by which statutes are enacted. The United States has a rigid constitution and Great Britain has a flexible one.

One of the main principles of any constitutional system is the separation of powers. The separation of powers is a model of state government. The model was first developed in ancient Greece. Under this model, the state is divided into branches, each with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with the powers associated with the other branches. The typical division of branches is into a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary.

A central feature of any constitution is the legislature. It may be represented by a unicameral body with one chamber or a bicameral body with two chambers.

Unicameral legislatures can be found in small states with unitary systems of government, among them Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Israel, and New Zealand, or in very tiny states such as Andorra, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein.

Most legislatures of unitary states are, in fact, bicameral, though one chamber is usually more powerful than the other.

Human rights or civil liberties form a central part of a country's constitution and govern the rights of the individual against the state. The fundamental constitutional principle is that the individual can do anything but that which is forbidden by law, while the state may do nothing but that which is authorized by law.

A

Task 1. Find the words with the similar meaning among the following:

sense, power, basic, nation, matter, community, fundamental, authority, affair, method, offspring, way, purpose, body, state, society, result, meaning, aim, important, set, organization, century, law, goal, age, agency, significant, rule.

Task 2. Find the words with the opposite meaning among the following:

public, written, fundamental, to include, to establish, theory, legal, success, to disestablish, private, secondary, complex, rare, unwritten, religious, simple, failure, to exclude, secular, frequent, practice, illegal.

Task 3. Make up correct word combinations:

catholic complete constitutional legal comprehensive governmental supreme fundamental

success system importance church authorities law rights document

to follow to respect to pursue to administer to modify to operate to endow with to prescribe

the example goals rules institutions rights public affairs the method powers

Task 4. Translate the following word combinations into Russian:

constitutional law, to treat of powers and frame of government, to regulate the relations of government and citizen, a church congregation, a bylaw, an appropriate procedure, respective powers, the authority of political rulers, religious matters, to alter the fundamental laws, to protect rights, to delimit powers, unwritten constitution.

Task 5. Translate the following word combinations into English:

отрасль публичного права, распределение правительственных полномочий, основные принципы, управлять общественными делами, результат национализма, свод норм, политическое сообщество, наделять функциями, средневековье, римская католическая церковь, права человека, различные формы правления.

Task 6. Insert the necessary prepositions:

to treat … the organization … government, according … the plan, rights … the individual, to multiply … number, … the broadest sense … the word, to operate … the terms … a formal written document, to conform … the rules, an alternative … a constitution, to provide … different patterns … governance, … the first place, to endow … powers, the jurisdiction … the church, to be limited … the rights, … the modern age.

Task 7. Make up sentences using these words and expressions. The original versions can be found in the text.

were limited, the rights, at, classes, the powers, by, of, political, rulers, some, of, least, of, moreover, subjects.

document, became popular, the rules, the essentials, idea, of, in, government, an orderly, the American, of, that, guide, the operations, of, very, must, quickly, comprehensive, stating.

Task 8. Complete the following sentences:

1. Constitutional law is the branch of the public law of a state which… .
2. A constitution is a body of rules… .
3. Constitutions may be … .
4. The constitution of a political community is composed of … . It may also include … .
5. In the Middle Ages the authority of political rulers in Europe …
6.  … was a potent factor in reshaping the constitutions of … .
7. The first step was made by … .
8. It was in the United States that … .
9. The American idea of … became popular very quickly.
10. Today almost all states have … .

B

Task 1. Make the summary and annotation of the text: 

Characteristics of constitutions 

Every state has a constitution, since every state functions on the basis of certain rules and principles. It has often been asserted that the United States has a written constitution but that the constitution of Great Britain is unwritten. This is true, but only in the sense that in the United States there is a formal document called the Constitution, whereas there is no such document in Great Britain. In fact, however, many parts of the British constitution exist in written form, whereas important aspects of the American constitution are wholly unwritten. The British constitution includes the Bill of Rights (1689), the Act of Settlement (1700-01), the Parliament Act of 1911, the successive Representation of the People acts (which extended the suffrage), the statutes dealing with the structure of the courts, the various local government acts, and many others. These are not ordinary statutes, even though they were adopted in the ordinary legislative way, and they are not codified within the structure of a single orderly document. On the other hand, such institutions in the United States as the presidential cabinet and the system of political parties, though not even mentioned in the written constitution, are most certainly of constitutional significance.

Written constitutions, indeed, can never exhaust the whole constitutional law of a state. They are always sup­plemented, to varying degrees, by statutes, judicial doc­trines interpreting the constitution, intergovernmental practices, and nongovernmental institutions (such as political parties) and their practices. Without these sup­plementary elements the overall constitutional framework of the political community would not be what it is.

Constitutions, written or unwritten, must be distin­guished according to whether they are “rigid” or “flex­ible”. Rigid are those constitutions at least some part of which cannot be modified in the ordinary legislative way. Flexible are those whose rules can all be modified through the simple procedure by which statutes are enacted. The United States has a rigid constitution, because proposals to amend the constitutional document adopted in 1788 must have a two-thirds majority vote in each house of Congress or be made by a convention called by two-thirds of the states, with subsequent ratification, in either case, by the legislatures or specially elected conventions of three-fourths of the states. Great Britain has a flexible constitution because all of its constitutional institutions and rules can be abrogated or modified by an act of Par­liament.