Ley Constitucional En Ingles

Unit 3Constitutional Law |

Definition of constitutional law

Constitutional law is that branch of the public law of a state which deals with the organization and framework of government, the organs and powers of sovereignty, the distribution of political and governmental authorities and functions, the fundamental principles which are to regulate the relations of government and subject, andwhich prescribes generally the plan and method according to which the public affairs of the state are to be administered.

Such principles consist both of legal rules in the strict sense and of usages, commonly called conventions, which without being enacted, are accepted as binding by all who are concerned in government.

Definition of constitution

A constitution is the organic andfundamental law of a nation or state, establishing the character and conception of its government, laying the basic principles to which its internal life is to be conformed, organizing the government, and regulating, distributing, and limiting the functions of its different departments, and prescribing the extent and manner of the exercise of sovereign powers.

A constitution may be (a) unwritten,resting mainly on custom and convention; (b) written, drawn up in legal form; (c) flexible, capable of being altered by ordinary legislative act; (d) rigid, capable of being altered only by special procedure. The British Constitution is unwritten and flexible; that of the United States is written and rigid.

THE ARGENTINE CONSTITUTION

The British Constitution

The British Constitution is theonly important unwritten system in the world. All other advanced states have written constitutions. The main reason why Britain is unique in this matter is that, unlike most other countries, the British have not had any violent transition in their recent history from one social system to another. Other countries have felt the need, after periods of great disturbance or revolution, to lay out newpolitical arrangements clearly in one document.

The main characteristics of the British Constitution are as follows:

1) The United Kingdom is a unitary state. Parliament is supreme and local government may only decide politics within the context of power granted by Parliament.

2) The Constitution is flexible. No special procedure is required in order to change its basic provisions. All thatis necessary for any major constitutional change is the passing of a new statute in an ordinary session of Parliament. This is so in theory, however, as it is most unlikely that the English Parliament try to modify it. Only a great popular pressure could lead the Parliament to carry out a constitutional reform and so eliminate the traditional English symbols.

3) The supremacy of Parliament.Parliament can pass what laws it wishes by its standard procedure, and therefore, the classic question of unconstituionality of statutes has no room in the English legal system.

4) A bicameral legislature. In Britain, statute law is made by two distinct bodies of law makers -the House of Commons and the House of Lords. In this sense, Britain is similar to other developed political systems.

5)A parliamentary executive. This is a system in which the Prime Minister and his Cabinet achieve power as a direct result of elections for the House of Commons. The executive only remains in power so long as it can maintain its support in the House of Commons.

6) No system of judicial review. In Britain all judges are bound by statute law and cannot question its provisions.

Anotherpeculiarity of the English constitutional organization is the absence of the classic division of powers, at least with the features of constitutional codes, such as that of the U.S.A. and other countries.

A clear evidence of this relative division of powers is the fact that the supreme court of justice is the House of Lords, one of the branches of Parliament. In addition, the Lord Chancellor performs...