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Match the following terms with their correct definitions
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1. rule of law
2. separation of powers
3. supremacy of Parliament
a) There is no legal opposition to Parliament.
b) Everyone is equal before the law.
c) Laws are made, put into effect and interpreted by different bodies.
The United Kingdom is one of six constitutional monarchies within the European Community and this institution dates back in Britain to the Saxon king Egbert. Since the age of absolute monarchy there has been a gradual decline in the Sovereign’s power and, while formally still the head of the executive and the judiciary, commander-in-chief of all armed forces, and temporal governor of the Church of England, nowadays monarchs reign but they do not rule.
Although many people consider the monarchy to be somewhat anachronistic and undemocratic institution, the Queen continues to enjoy the support of the vast majority of Britons and she does have certain undeniably useful functions. Besides carrying out important ceremonial duties, she also acts as a ‘unifying force’ in both the Constitution and the nation, lying outside of the political debate. Moreover, her regular meetings with successive Prime Ministers and personal contacts with numerous foreign leaders mean that she is better informed than most ministers.
The Legislature
Parliament is the supreme legislative authority and consists of three separate elements: the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the elected House of Commons. Over the centuries the balance between the three parts of the legislature has changed, so that the Queen’s role is now only formal and the House of Commons has gained supremacy over the House of Lords.
The House of Commons is a popular assembly elected by almost universal adult suffrage. There are 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) – each member representing one of the 650 geographical areas (constituencies) into which the country is divided for electoral purposes (523 for England, 38 for Wales, 72 for Scotland and 17 for Northern Ireland). If an MP dies, resigns or is made a peer, a by-election is held in that constituency to elect a new MP. Leaders of the Government and Opposition sit on the front benches of the Commons, with their supporters (back-benchers) behind them. The House is presided over by the Speaker.
The House of Lords, which is presided over by the Lord Chancellor, is probably the only upper House in the democratic world whose members are not elected. It is made up of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal; the former consist of the representatives of the Church of England (the Archbishops of York and Cunterbury and 25 bishops); the latter comprise all hereditary and life peers (life peers, named by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister, do not pass on their title when they die).
The main functions of the Parliament are: making laws, providing money for government through taxation, examining government policy, administration and spending, debating political questions.
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Making new laws: Bills and Acts
A proposal for a new law is called a bill. Bills may be introduced in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords by any member. In practice most bills are proposed by the Government. After being discussed and perhaps changed, the bill is sent to the other House to go through the same process. When both Houses agree on a text, the bill is sent to the Queen for her signature (or “Royal Assent”) at which point it becomes an Act of Parliament. A bill which has been passed by the House of Commons is almost certain to become law, and about fifty bills become Acts each year. The House of Lords can revise bills but cannot stop them from becoming Acts; it can only delay the process for a maximum of 12 months. The Royal Assent is a formality: no Sovereign has refused a bill since 1707.
Because Britain has no written constitution, there is no special procedure for changing the laws which govern the country. If a political party has a clear majority in the House of Commons it can make new laws and give itself new powers. This allows a Government to make radical changes in the law.
The Executive
Prime Minister and Cabinet
The leader of the party which obtains a majority of seats in a general election is named Prime Minister and is formally asked by the Sovereign to recommend a group of ministers to form a Government. The position of Prime Minister is based on convention, not status, and dates back to when George 1 left the running of the country’s affairs to his ministers. A number of ministers are invited by the Prime Minister to attend regular meetings to discuss policy and this group of ministers is known as the Cabinet. It is a political convention for the Cabinet to act as a single man, which means that a minister who cannot accept a Cabinet decision must resign. (The main opposition party forms a Shadow Cabinet, which is more or less as the Government would be if the party were in power, and the relevant members act as opposition spokesmen on major issues.)
The Prime Minister has considerable individual power to introduce and control policies, and to change the Cabinet by appointing new ministers, sacking old ones, or “reshuffling” the Cabinet by moving its members to other Cabinet posts.
Elections
The right to vote in elections has gradually been extended to virtually every British subject over 18 who is resident in Britain (members of the Royal Family and lunatics are not allowed to vote). People vote for any one of the candidates in the constituency in which they are registered. The candidate that obtains the most votes in that constituency, irrespective of whether he or she has an overall majority, becomes its Member of Parliament and the other votes are “wasted”.
Anyone over 21 who is entitled to vote (except for clergymen, civil servants, felons and bankrupts) can stand as a candidate. Candidates are normally selected by the local party associations, but independent candidates can also stand. Each candidate has to pay a deposit (currently 500 pounds), which is returned if a candidate obtains at least 5% of the total number of votes cast in that constituency. It is now a tradition for there to be a few humorous candidates in all general elections (such as the “Don’t-Vote-For-Me Party” in the 1987 election).
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General elections must be held at least every five years, but the Prime Minister has the right to call elections before the five-year term has expired. Nowadays, the electorate often votes for a particular party leader rather than the party itself, so Government leaders try to hold elections at moments of particular popularity, e.g. Mrs. Thatcher after her victory in the Falklands War.
Political Parties
As a result of the electoral system two parties have usually been predominant in Britain, at different times Tories and Whigs, Conservatives and Liberals, and since the 1930s Conservatives and Labour, with one party normally obtaining a majority of seats in the House of Commons and the other having its role limited to criticising Government policy.
The Conservative Party was formed by Robert Peel from what was left of the old Tory party in 1830s.
Peel and his successor Benjamin Disraeli (the first Conservative Prime Minister) together shaped modern Conservatism. Originally the party of church, aristocracy and landed gentry, it has increasingly been supported by large business interests. The Labour Party was formed by James Keir Hardie in 1892 to represent the workers and was more or less the parliamentary wing of the Trade Unions, with whom the party continues to be closely associated. James Ramsay MacDonald became the first socialist Prime Minister in 1924.
In 1981 a new party was formed to try to break the dominance of Conservatives and Labour. Some Conservatives and Labour MPs left their own parties to join the new Social Democrats. The new party then agreed to fight elections in alliance with the small but long-established Liberals, forming the Alliance. Their problem, under the “first past the post” system, was to turn their popular votes into parliamentary seats. In 1987 the two parties of the Alliance agreed to merge to form a new party, the Liberal Democrats, although some Social Democrats preferred to remain independent.
The Judiciary
British law comes from two main sources: laws made in Parliament (usually drawn up by government departments and lawyers), and Common Law, which is based on previous judgments and customs. Just as there is no written constitution, so England and Wales have no criminal code or civil code and the interpretation of the law is based on what has happened in the past. The laws which are made in Parliament are interpreted by the courts, but changes in the law itself are made in Parliament.
A person charged by the police with an offence is sent to a magistrates’ court, the most common type of law court in England and Wales. There are 700 magistrates’ courts and about 30,000 magistrates.
Magistrates’ courts are presided over by groups of three unpaid, lay magistrates (also known as “justices of the peace” or JPs), who often have no legal qualifications, although they are given basic training when appointed and are advised on points of law and procedure by a legally-qualified clerk. There are also a few stipendiary magistrates – full-time, legally-qualified magistrates who sit alone. Magistrates hear and decide in cases concerning minor offences and refer more serious cases to the Crown Court, which has 90 branches in different towns and cities. A defendant can always choose, however, to be tried by a jury in the Crown Court.
The Crown Court deals with trials of a more serious nature or appeals from magistrates’ courts and is presided over by a judge, who must be a barrister or a solicitor with at least ten years experience.
Defendants who declare themselves not guilty of a crime are tried by a jury of 12 people. The judge decides on points of law, sums up evidence for the jury and instructs it on the relevant law (as well as determining fines and sentences). It is the jury alone, however, which decides whether a defendant is guilty or not guilty.
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Civil cases (for example, divorce or bankruptcy cases) are dealt with in County courts. Appeals are heard by higher courts. For example, appeals from magistrates’ courts are heard in the Crown Court, unless they are appeals on points of law. The highest court of appeal in England and Wales is the House of Lords. (Scotland has its own High Court in Edinburgh, which hears all appeals from Scottish courts.) Certain cases may be referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. In addition, individuals have made the British Government change its practices in a number of areas as a result of petitions to the European Court of Human Rights.
The legal system also includes juvenile courts (which deal with offenders under seventeen) and coroners’ courts (which investigate violent, sudden or unnatural deaths). There are administrative tribunals which make quick, cheap and fair decisions with much less formality. Tribunals deal with professional standards, disputes between individuals, and disputes between individuals and government departments (for example, over taxation).
People in law cases
Solicitors
There are about 66,000 solicitors practicing in England and Wales and they are controlled by their own professional body called the Law Society. To become a solicitor it is usual to have a law degree and then to take a one-year Legal Practice Course. This is followed by two-year training period, previously called “articles”, where the trainee solicitor works in a firm of solicitors or for an organisation such as the Crown Prosecution Service or local or central government. During this two-year period he will be paid, though not at the same rate as a fully qualified solicitor. He will also have to complete a Professional Skills Course, which gives training in interviewing clients and witnesses, negotiating, advocacy and business management including dealing with accounts. Finally the trainee will be admitted as a solicitor by the Law Society and his name will be added to the list or roll of solicitors. Those who have a degree in another subject must take an extra year’s course on law, called the Common Professional Examination, before going on to take the Legal Practice Course. There is also a possible entry route which does not involve taking a degree first, but this is only available to mature students and it takes longer to qualify by this route.
The main criticisms of the training process are that, first, many people with good degrees cannot get a place on the Legal Practice Course; secondly, students have to pay the fees for this course and also support themselves during the year it lasts. This problem has occurred because most Local Authorities refuse to give a grant for the Legal Practice Course if the student has already had a grant to do a degree. The result of this is that students from poor families cannot afford to take the course and are therefore prevented from becoming solicitors. Many students from lower-and middle-income backgrounds take out bank loans and by the time they qualify, they may owe thousands of pounds. In order to overcome this problem some universities have started offering a four-year course combining a law degree and a practical course which allows the student to receive a grant for the four-year period. The University of Northumberland was the first to offer this course in 1993, so that the first students to use this route will qualify in 1997. The third criticism is that even after passing the Legal Practice Course students are not qualified as solicitors but must find a training place with a firm of solicitors or other suitable organisation. Not all students will be able to find training places and may be prevented from qualifying as solicitors as a result. In 1993 it was estimated that there were 6,000 applicants and only 3,000 training places available.
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Barristers
There are about 8,000 barristers in independent practice in England and Wales and they are controlled by their own professional body called the General Council of the Bar. To become a barrister it is usual to start by obtaining a law degree; those with a degree in another subject will have to do one-year course on law and pass the Common Professional Examination. In order to go on to the next stage of training it is necessary to join an Inn of Court and be accepted on the Bar’s Vocational Training Course which lasts one academic year. It has become increasingly difficult to obtain a place on this Training Course and the method of selecting students has been criticised. Prior to 1994 it was necessary to have at least a 2(I) pass at degree level. In 1994 the procedure was changed; the grades obtained at A level became more important and critical reasoning tests were introduced. One result of the changes was that students with first class degrees were being refused places and there were many successful appeals against the refusal of a place. The Vocational Training Course concentrates on practical skills, particularly advocacy, and students learn to draft legal documents and present cases in court. As with solicitors there is a financial problem for students doing the Vocational Course since Local Education Authorities rarely give a grant for this stage of training. Joining an Inn of Court and attending there to dine or for weekend courses is compulsory but students may choose which of the four Inns – Lincoln’s Inn, the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple and Gray’s Inn – they wish to join.
Judges
Judges as a group are also called the judiciary. There are many different levels of judge although the main division is into inferior and superior judges. This may sound an odd way of referring to judges but it reflects the different levels of court in which they sit. Inferior judges include: stipendiary magistrates, district judges, recorders, circuit judges. Superior judges are: the puisne judges who sit in the High Court, the Lords Justices of Appeal in the Court of Appeal, the Law Lords in the House of Lords. To become a judge at any level it is necessary to be either a barrister or a solicitor. The Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 made changes basing qualifications on certificates of advocacy and rights of audience in the courts. In other words, a barrister or solicitor must have been qualified to be an advocate in the court to which he is appointed as a judge. The Courts and Legal Services Act also introduced a type of career structure for judges, with the possibility of being promoted from a lower judicial office to the next one up on the ladder. Prior to the Act it was very rare for a judge to be promoted from one court to a higher court except from the High Court to the Court of Appeal and it was impossible for solicitors to progress further than a circuit judgeship. No matter how good a judge a solicitor was he could not be appointed as a High Court judge; this was clearly wrong as the best judges should be able to be promoted. The first High Court judge to come from solicitor circuit judges was Sir Michael Sachs, who was appointed in 1993.
Jury
A jury consists of twelve people (jurors’), who are ordinary people chosen at random from the Electoral Register (the list of people who can vote in elections). The jury listen to the evidence given in court in certain criminal cases and decide whether the defendant is guilty or innocent. If the person is found guilty, the punishment is passed by the presiding judge. Juries are rarely used in civil cases.
To be eligible for jury service a person must:
- be aged between 18 and 70
- be registered to vote on the electoral register
- have lived in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for at least five years since reaching the age of 13.
These qualifications are set out in the Juries Act 1974, as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 1988. However some people, who qualify under the criteria above, are still not allowed to serve on a jury, because they are disqualified or ineligible for some other reason.
Some criminal convictions will disqualify you from serving on a jury, the length of time of the disqualification depending on the sentence given. In addition the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 has disqualified those on bail from sitting as jurors.
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Those who are ineligible include:
- people suffering from certain mental illnesses
- people whose occupations are concerned with the administration of justice or who have been so employed within the last 10 years; this is a wide group as it includes judges, court clerks, barristers, solicitors and police
- priests, monks and nuns
Apart from these groups there are also people who have the right to refuse to do jury service; they are ‘excusable as of right’. This group includes:
- Members of Parliament
- those serving in the armed forces
- doctors, nurses and pharmacists
- anyone aged 65 to 70
- anyone who has done jury service within the last two years
The court has an official who is responsible for sending out summons calling people for jury service. This official will have all the electoral registers for the area and he will select names from these in a random manner. In some areas a computer is used to select people’s names, in other areas the court official will look at the registers and choose names at random. Once the names have been chosen, those people are sent jury summons telling them to come to the court on a certain date. The normal length of jury service is two weeks, though jurors are warned that some trials may last longer. More people than are needed are summoned as the court official will not know who is disqualified, ineligible or excusable as of right. If someone is within one of these categories he or she has to declare it and anyone who is disqualified can be fined up to £5,000 for failing to declare that disqualification.
There will also be other people who do not want to do jury service and they have to explain their reasons in writing to the court. If they have a sufficiently good reason, they will be excused from doing jury service on that occasion, but may have to do it in the future. Good reasons include being too ill to go to court, business appointments, having a holiday booked or even having an examination to take. This sort of excusal is called a discretionary excusal, since it is up to the court to decide whether that person should be excused or not. If a person is not excused he must attend court on the date given on the summons or risk being fined for failing to do so. The maximum fine for non-attendance is £1,000.
The Police
Each of Britain’s fifty-two police forces is responsible for law enforcement in its own area. In addition there are various national and regional connections (for example, in areas of training or the transfer of criminal records), and local forces cooperate with each other. Some special services, such as the Fraud Squad (who investigate financial crimes), are available to any local force in England and Wales. In general, however, the local police forces work independently under their own Chief Constables. Each force is maintained by a local police authority. The exception is London, where the Metropolitan Police are responsible to the Home Secretary.
Police duties cover a wide range of activities, from traffic control to more specialised departments such as river police. Each independent force has a uniformed branch and a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with detectives in plain clothes. In addition the police authorities in England and Wales employ 40,000 civilians and nearly 5,000 traffic wardens.
Britain has relatively few police – approximately one policeman for every 400 people – and traditionally they are armed only with truncheons except in special circumstances. However, recent years have seen some major changes in police policy in response to industrial disputes and inner city violence in Great Britain. The situation in Northern Ireland, where the Royal Ulster Constabulary are the local police force, has also meant a change in the style of maintaining law and order. In general, there has been increase in the number of special units trained in crowd and riot control and in the use of firearms, a controversial area for the British police. The number of police has risen along with the crime rate.
Crime and Punishment
About 90% of all crimes are dealt with by magistrates’ courts. Sentences vary a lot but most people who are found guilty have to pay a fine. Magistrates’ courts can impose fines of up to 2,000 pounds or prison sentences of up to six months. If the punishment is to be more severe the case must go to a Crown Court. The most severe punishment is life imprisonment: there has been no death penalty in Britain since 1965.
The level of recorded crime and the number of people sent to prison both increased during the 1970s and 1980s. By the end of that period the average prison population was more than 50,000 and new prisons had to be built as overcrowding had become a serious problem. By 1988 the cost of keeping someone in prison was over 250 pound per week, which was more than the national average wage.
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