正在編輯用戶:Politics Notes on the UK Constitution （章節）

== 4 Key Principles ==

=== Parliamentary Sovereignty ===
*Cornerstone of the UK Constitution
*'''Sovereignty''': Legal Supremacy
*Westminster is the '''supreme law-making body'''
*Constructed around three interconnected propositions
**Parliament can legislate on '''any subject''' it chooses
**Legislation '''cannot be overturned''' by any higher authority
**'''No parliament can bind its successors'''

=== Rule of Law ===
*Defines the relationship between the state and its citizens
**Ensuring that state action is '''limited and responsible'''
*According to '''''A.V. Dicey''''', had 3 main standards
**No one can be punished without trial
**No one is above the law, and all are subject to the same justice
**The general principles of the constitution
***such as personal freedoms
***result from '''judge-made law'''
***instead of statute law or executive order

=== Unitary State ===
*Although the UK consists of 4 constituent parts
**England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
**It has been a '''highly centralised''' state
**in which legal authority is retained by Parliament
*In a unitary constitution
**Subnational institutions do not have autonomous powers that are constitutionally protected
**Regional government may be weak or non-existent
**Local government has little power

=== Parliamentary Government Under Constitutional Monarchy ===
*'''''Constitutional Monarchy'''''
**A system in which the monarch is the '''formal head of state'''
**But his legal powers are '''exercised by government ministers'''
*'''''Parliamentary Government'''''
**A political system in which '''government takes place through parliament'''
**And in which the executive and legislative branches are '''fused'''
*'''''Cabinet government'''''
**A system in which executive power is '''vested not in a single individual'''
**But in a cabinet whose members operate under the doctrine of '''collective responsibility'''
*'''''Prime-Ministerial Government'''''
**A system in which the '''PM is the dominant actor'''
**And is able to '''bypass the cabinet'''