10. General characteristics of the Brit Gov-t The Monarchy.

Great Britain is a parliamentary (constitutional) monarchy.

The party that wins the most seats in a general election forms the gov-t, and the leader of the party becomes prime minister (PM), the head of the gov-t. PM takes policy decisions with the agreement of the Cabinet. The main opposition party forms a Shadow Cabinet, the relevant members act as opposition spokesmen on major issues.

Members of the cabinet of the British government constitute the supreme executive authority of the government, and are the sole advisers to the Crown. They are members of Parliament, usually of the same political party as the prime minister, and thus combine executive and legislative duties. Members of the cabinet are individually responsible to the prime minister who appoints them, with approval of the Crown. The prime minister also may remove any of them. Collectively the cabinet is responsible to Parliament for its policies and actions.

The number of members of the British cabinet (~24 secretaries) varies. The tendency is for the number to increase in normal times with the growth of governmental functions and to decrease in national emergencies when the executive power is concentrated in fewer hands. The cabinet meets at 10 Downing Street in London. This house is the official residence of the PM of Great Britain.

Elected from geogr constituencies determined by population, & each MP represents approx 60, 000 people. 4 permanent boundary commissions exist (one each for Engld, Wales, Scotld. & Norlreland) to keep the constituencies equal & the boundaries fair. The commissions review the constituencies every 8-12 years & recommend changes.

A session of P. lasts for 5 years unless the PM dissolves P. (reasons for it: (1) over a major issue that he believes should be submitted to the voters; (2) if the tide of public opinion seems to be flowing strongly on the side of the party in office; (3) if the gove-nt is defeated on an important piece of legislation). When the PM dissolves P. a gen elec-n is held for all the seats in the HoC. The membs of the majoty party sit on one side of the house, directly facing the minoty party membs. Each side has a front bench where its most important polit leaders sit. The PM and his Cabt colleagues sit in the majoty party front bench. The oppos party front bench is occupied by the Shadow Cabt (the oppos party leader and his followers).

Legislation. Most laws are initiated by the Cabt in the form of public bills, or legis-n pertaining to the general law, which govern the population as a whole. Individual membs of P. may introduce private bills to address specific or local concerns, such as the railways or local authorities. Ministers of departments initiate most of the public bills relating to their department (gove-nt bills). When a bill is passed into law, it then receives the royal assent. Much of the Cabt's work on legis-n is accomplished in specialized committees which debate and publish reports that help shape legis-n. Bills may be introduced into either the HoC or the HoL, except for financial bills (only in the HoC). Each bill is given 3 readings in each house. In the 1st reading the bill is presented without debate. After the bill is read a 2nd time the house debates the bill's gen principles. The bill then goes to a com-tee for thorough study, discusn, & amendment. At the 3rd reading the bill is presented to the house in its final form & a vote is taken. If the bill is passed on the 3rd reading it is sent to the other house, where it goes through the same procedure. If passed by the 2nd house, the bill is sent to the monarch for the ceremony of royal assent before becoming law. If amended by either house the amendments must be resolved by both houses before the bill is sent to the monarch. The HoL can delay legis-n for about a year (30 days for fin bills). A bill originating in the HoL can be tabled and not considered in the HoC, but a bill originating in the HoC will become law, even without the approval of the HoL, if it passes Commons again in the following year's session.

History. Over the course of time the seat of power in P. has passed from the Crown to the Lords to its final resting place in the HoC. P. originated in the great councils called by the Crown during the MidAges. Through these meetings monarchs sought the advice of their subjects, exchanged information about the realm, gathered petitions. By the end of the 13th cent repres-ves from the counties (knights of the shire) & repres-ves of the towns (burgesses) were also being summoned to attend regularly. The knights&burgesses eventually came tosit separately (—the HoC). The nobles&church leaders sat in —the HoL. By end MidAges P. had taken on a form of today. It legislated &approved taxes & passed laws. Ong complicated struggles between the monarch& the 2houses of P. resulted in the gove-nt gaining power, while the Crown lost power. In the 20th cent the HoC successfully struggled to curtail the power of the HoL. Today the HoL can only delay legislation.

individuals from the Cab entirely. Former Cab ministers may retain their positions as membs of P.

The 2 key doctrines of Cab gove-nt are collective responsibility (the Cab acts unanimously, even when Cab ministers don't all agree upon a subject; if an important decision is unacceptable to a particular Cab memb, it is expected that he will resign to signify dissent. ) & ministerial responsibility (ministers are responsible for the work of their departments & answer to P. for the activities of their departments; the policy of departmental ministers must be consistent with that of the gove-nt as a whole; the ministers bear the responsibility for any failure of their department in terms of administration or policy. ).

The Privy Council. (PC) It is a large, & generally ceremonial, body of more than 450 membs that developed out of the royal council that existed in the Middle Ages. By the 18th cent the PC had taken over all the powers of the royal council. The PC comprises all current and former Cab membs, as well as important public figures in Britain and the Commonwealth. The PC advises the monarch and arranges for the formal handling of documents. It has a large number of committees, each with a specific task (e. g. dealing with outlying islands, universities, or legal matters). The most important committee is the Judicial Committee of the PC, which is the highest court of appeal for certain nations in the Commonwealth, some church-related appeals, & for disciplinary committees of some professions.

the community who are assisted by legal experts. The vast majority of crimin cases in Britain are minor enough to be handled by JPs. More serious criminal offenses (e. g. murder, rape, & robbery) are sent to a Crown Court where they are tried before a High Court or a circuit judge & a jury of local citizens. The Crown Court also hears appeals from the magistrate's court. Convictions & sentences from the Crown Court may be taken to the Court of Appeals for the Criminal Division. The final court of appeals is the HoL.

Civil cases are heard in county courts before a single judge. County courts hear cases dealing with families, property, contracts, and torts (violations of a legal duty imposed by the state that cause injury to an individual). Above the county courts is the High Court which hears more complicated civil cases. High Court cases are sent to one of three divisions: the Family Division (handles complex divorce cases, adoptions, & matters relating to children); the Chancery Division (handles business matters & estate cases); or the Queen's Bench Division (handles property matters & torts, as well as maritime & commercial cases). Appeals are heard by the Court of Appeals for the Civil Division, & ultimately by the HoL.

A more informal & less expensive alternative to civil & criminal courts is a tribunal which handles minor cases outside of the official court system. Tribunals are made up of lay people & are regulated by the law. They settle disputes between private citizens, grievances between employers & employees, & complaints between citizens & public authorities.

UK 11. THE LEG BRANCH OF THE GOV-NT OF GB. PARLIAMENT & ITS TRADITIONS

The UK is a parliamentary monarchy with a monarch possessing limited powers as its head. Its democratic gove-nt is based on a constitution composed of various historical documents, laws, & formal customs adopted over the years.

The legislature is represented by Parliament (P)which consists of the House of Lords (HoL) & the House of Commons (HoC), & the monarch (also called the Crown). The HoC is far more influential than the HoL, which in effect makes the British system unicameral, meaning the legislature has 1 chamber. The Prime Minister (PM) — the chief executive — is a member of the HoC. Because the HoC is involved in both the leg & exe branches of the British gove-nt, there is no separation of powers between executive & legislature as there is in the US.

Election Procedure. P. is elected roughly every 5 years & is dissolved by the Crown on the advice of the PM who then calls a general election. Parliamentary sessions are held each year and begin in Oct or Nov. P. meets at the Houses of P. in London (officially the New Palace of Westminster). The P. of the UK legislates for the entire nation and includes representatives from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northlreland. Brit citizens abroad may vote for up to 20 years after left Brit.

Chambers. The HoL. (1200 membs until 1999; now =600) Now it is more a place of discussion than power & it normally passes legislation already approved by the HoC. Its membs are not elected. The HoL comprises the lords temporal (either hereditary or life peers), the lords spiritual (archbishops of Canterbury &York; the bishops of London, Durham, & Winchester; & 21 next most senior bishops), & the law lords (who assist in the judicial functions of the HoL). In 1999 the full membership of the HoL decreased by almost half (>650 hereditary peers were stripped of their seats by the HoL Act). Powers of the HoL: (1) to introduce bills (bills dealing with financial matters can only originate in the HoC); (2) to offer amendments to bills passed by the HoC; (3) to delay legislation (for up about a year, financial bills - only for a month). The Lords are forbidden to disapprove non-fin bills if the HoC passed them in 2 successive sessions (the only exception is a bill to lengthen the life of a P. past 5 years which requires the assent of both chambers). The HoL is limited in power as most Britons believe that in a modern democracy a non-elected house should only act as a forum for opinion. Though the HoL has relatively little power, many Britons would like to either abolish it completely or replace it with some form of elected 2nd chamber.

The HoC. (650 membs) It is the source of real polit power in the UK. Its membs are elected by universal suffrage of citizens over the age of 18. Groups denied the right to vote include membs of the HoL, detained mental health patients, sentenced prisoners , & those convicted of corrupt or illegal election practices in the previous 5 years. To add, some persons are excluded from standing for election to the HoC (peers; clergy from the Church of Engl, the Ch of Scotd, the Ch of Ireld, or the Roman Cath Ch; people sentenced to > year in prisn; & those with unpaid bankruptcy bills). Membs are

UK 12. THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT IN GB.

The UK is a parliamentary monarchy with a monarch possessing limited powers as its head. Its democratic gove-nt is based on a constitution composed of various historical documents, laws, & formal customs adopted over the years.

The chief executive of the gove-nt is the Prime Minister (PM) who is the leader of the party that holds the most seats in the HoC. The Pm is appointed when the monarch goes through the ceremony of selecting as PM the person from the HoC who is head of the majority party. The PM presides over the Cabinet & selects the other Cabinet membs who join him to form the gove-nt that is part of the functioning executive. Acting through the Cabinet & in the name of the monarch, the PM exercises all of the theoretical powers of the Crown including making appointments. In the past, PMs also came from the HoL. Today, in the unlikely circumstance that a peer (a memb of the HoL) is sought as a PM by one of the parties, he must first resign from the HoL& gain election to the HoC.

At times a PM comes from a party that does not quite have a majority of seats in the HoC. In such a case that party must rely on an alliance with smaller parties, the smaller parties voting with the party in power on necessary legislation. A gove-nt formed from a party without a majority in P. is called a minority gove-nt (e. g. between 1974 and 1979 a minority Labour Party gove-nt was able to stay in power because the Liberal Party generally voted with it).

The Cabinet. (Cab) It developed in the 18lh cent out of informal meetings of key gove-nt ministers during the reigns of the Hannoverian monarchs who took relatively little interest in politics. In the 19lh cent this committee evolved into an effective body that wielded the monarch's executive power. The Cab has =20 membs (ministers) alls of whom must be MPs. They are leaders of the majority party in the HoC or, more rarely, membs of the HoL. Cab ministers who head a particular geve-nt department (e. g. the Ministry of Defense) are known as secretaries of state. The Pm serves as the first lord of the treasury & as minister for the civil service. Besides the secretaries of state, the Cab includes nondepartmental ministers who hold traditional offices (e. g. the lord president of the council, the paymaster general, & the lord privy seal) & ministers without portfolio who don't have specific responsibilities but are assigned to specific tasks as needed. The lord chancellor holds a unique position. His executive duties as a Cab memb include being responsible for legal affairs in the UK, but he is also head of the judiciary, which is a separate part of the Brit gove-nt. The PM has the power to move membs of the Cab from post to post, or to drop

UK 13. THE JUDICIAL BRANCH OF THE GOVERNMENT INGB.

The UK is a parliamentary monarchy with a monarch possessing limited powers as its head. Its democratic gove-nt is based on a constitution composed of various historical documents, laws, & formal customs adopted over the years.

British legal system has been emulated throughout the world & many of its key principles & rights are part of the US law. These principles include the right to trial by jury; the right to due process of law; freedom from unlawful imprisonment (called the writ of habeas corpus); the trial system of prosecution & defense; & the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

The judicial system has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon period, when the monarch established local courts to provide justice for all subjects. Monarchs delegated the power to hear cases to royal justices, who presided over courts in the monarch's name. The British legal system relies on common law which is based on custom & on decisions in previous legal cases (precedents). Common law originated in the • 12th cent, growing out of the rules &traditions that ordinary people had worked out over time. Through the centuries common law evolved as it incorporated legal decisions made in specific cases, & it remains the basis of Brit law except when superseded by legislation. Unlike the US, Britain does not have a Supreme Court that reviews legislation to determine its constitutionality; this responsibty falls to P. Those who practice law in Britain are divided into solicitors and barristers. Solicitors perform the everyday work of the law, particularly legal matters that can be handled solely with paperwork. Barristers plead cases in court. In Scotland barristers are called advocates. Solicitors engage barristers when they believe a client needs to go to court. Eminent barristers and, since 1996, some solicitors, may become Queen's Counselors (QCs) - or "take silk" (because they switch from wearing cotton gowns to silk gowns in court). Barristers with long & distinguished careers may be chosen to become Crown judges by the lord chancellor - the head of the judicial system in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own legal systems.

Britain has several layers of courts & 2 kinds of legal proceedings - criminal and civil. Criminal law is concerned with acts punishable by the state (e. g. murder). Civil law involves disputes between private parties, either individuals, organizations, or companies. The final court of appeal for both civil& criminal cases is the HoL where appeals are heard by the law lords.

Criminal cases are handled in one of two ways. Petty offenses (e. g. simple theft or vandalism) are brought before a local magistrate, or justice of the peace (JP). These unpaid magistrates are appointed by the lord chancellor. They are membs of