scholarly journals Harnessing Distrust and the Power of Intercession for the Separation of Powers

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Yann Allard-Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Party Members

In what follows, I reflect on themes arising from my reading of Jacob Levy’s The Separation of Powers and the Challenge to Constitutional Democracy. According to Levy, the separation of powers in contemporary constitutional democracies is failing, thus endangering the rule of law. Briefly, this is because political parties have bridged the gap between the legislature and the executive: by giving rise to partisan politics that cross the institutional divide, political parties have dampened, if not disabled, the institutional incentive and motivation of the legislature to keep the executive in check. Furthermore, when this is combined with the myth of the united and undifferentiated people, which the executive, populistically, can easily claim to embody, the simple act of opposing the executive may be framed as seditious. In the end, the power of the executive is set free by the partisan loyalty of fellow party members and by the framing of opposition as disloyal and deleterious to the polity.

scholarly journals Symposium Summary: The State of Canada's Constitutional Democracy

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Cheryl Milne ◽  
John Greiss ◽  
Deborah Boswell
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
National Level ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
The University

Dramatic changes have taken place in recent years at the national level with respect to the day to day functioning of our constitutional democracy. These changes impinge on the separation of powers, the rule of law and the supremacy of the constitution. The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights at the University of Toronto partnered with the Centre for Constitutional Studies at the University of Alberta to organize a two day symposium in February 2016, at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, designed to bring together a diverse group of academic experts and individuals with experience in public service at high levels, as well as academics with personal experience in governance, to discuss these changes.

scholarly journals Checking the Other and Checking the Self: Role Morality and the Separation of Powers

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-54
Author(s):  
Hillary Nye
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Moral Concept ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Role Morality ◽  
Moral Ideals ◽  
The Relationship

The concepts of the rule of law, the separation of powers, and checks and balances are related in complicated ways. Jacob T Levy brings this to light in his thought-provoking McDonald Lecture, “The Separation of Powers and the Challenge to Constitutional Democracy.”1 In this response to Levy’s paper I want to further explore the relationship between these three ideas. I will argue that, when thinking about the rule of law, we must consider the idea of “role morality” and its place in constraining power. We should think of the constraints on power that stem from role morality as “internal” as opposed to “external” checks on power. I also suggest that we would do well to broaden our understanding of what the rule of law requires, and to think of it not just as a matter of ensuring impartiality and formal legal equality in the sense that the law applies to all actors within the system. We might benefit from thinking of the rule of law as a weightier moral concept that demands that decision-makers comply with moral ideals, and not just with the rules as laid out.

The Independence of the Judiciary under the Third Republican Constitution of Nigeria

1990 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Ikhariale
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Basic Form ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Third ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Economic Underdevelopment ◽  
The Government

One of the fundamental principles underlying the Nigerian constitutional process is that of the independence of the judiciary. The concept, in its basic form, embodies the entire philosophy of constitutional democracy especially as emphasised by the preamble to the Constitution which is for “promoting the good government and welfare of all persons … on the principles of Equality, Freedom and Justice”. In a country such as Nigeria which is presently characterised by political and economic underdevelopment, it is generally considered constitutionally desirable that a viable contrivance such as the institutional separation of the judiciary from the other arms of the government is a necessary bulwark against all forms of political and social tyranny, administrative victimisation and oppression. In other words, the freedom of the judicature from any influence, whether exerted by the legislature or the executive, or even from the judiciary itself, which is capable of leading to any form of injustice, abuse, miscarriage of justice, judicial insensitivity or other court-related vices is a condition sine qua non for the establishment of a durable political order based on the rule of law and constitutionalism.The notion of the independence of the judiciary has its philosophical ancestry in the time-honoured theory of the separation of powers, a doctrine which incidentally features prominently in the allocation of state powers under the Nigerian constitutional scheme.

scholarly journals A Populist Monster and the future of Constitutional Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Andraž Teršek
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Eu

Abstract The central objective of the post-socialist European countries which are also Member States of the EU and Council of Europe, as proclaimed and enshrined in their constitutions before their official independence, is the establishment of a democracy based on the rule of law and effective legal protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms. In this article the author explains what, in his opinion, is the main problem and why these goals are still not sufficiently achieved: the ruthless simplification of the understanding of the social function and functioning of constitutional courts, which is narrow, rigid and holistically focused primarily or exclusively on the question of whether the judges of these courts are “left or right” in purely daily-political sense, and consequently, whether constitutional court decisions are taken (described, understood) as either “left or right” in purely and shallow daily-party-political sense/manner. With nothing else between and no other foundation. The author describes such rhetoric, this kind of superficial labeling/marking, such an approach towards constitutional law-making as a matter of unbearable and unthinking simplicity, and introduces the term A Populist Monster. The reasons that have led to the problem of this kind of populism and its devastating effects on the quality and development of constitutional democracy and the rule of law are analyzed clearly and critically.

Crisis of the Rule of Law in Europe: The Cases of Hungary, Poland and Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-398
Author(s):  
David Parra Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Division Of Powers ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
Aggressive Interference

Democracy is an instrument at the service of a noble purpose: to ensure the freedom and equality of all citizens by guaranteeing the civil, political and social rights contained in constitutional texts. Among the great principles on which this instrument rests is the division of powers, which consists, substantially, in the fact that power is not concentrated, but that the various functions of the State are exercised by different bodies, which, moreover, control each other. Well, the increasingly aggressive interference of the Executive and, to a lesser extent, the Legislative in material spheres that should be reserved exclusively for the Judiciary, violates this principle and, for this reason, distorts the idea of democracy, an alarming trend that, for some time now, are observed in European Union countries such as Hungary, Poland and Spain. Preventing the alarming degradation of European democracy, of which these three countries are an example, requires not only more than necessary institutional reforms to ensure respect for these principles and prevent the arbitrariness of the public authorities, but also a media network and an education system that explains and promotes these values and principles, that is, one that makes citizens aware of and defend constitutionalism. Keywords: Rule of law; Democracy; Separation of powers; judicial independence; Europe.

scholarly journals The constitutionality of default arbitration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Asher Gabriel Emanuel
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Public Provision ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Essential State ◽  
State Functions ◽  
Commercial Disputes

<p>A proposed Bilateral Arbitration Treaty would subject international commercial disputes between enterprises in signatory states’ jurisdictions to arbitration unless the parties agreed to the contrary. This marks a substantial departure from conventional understandings of arbitration as based on the consent of the parties. More importantly, the policy would modify the jurisdiction of the courts, removing a large number of disputes to offshore tribunals subject to minimal judicial oversight. This paper explores the constitutional propriety of such a policy, with particular attention paid to the principles of the separation of powers, the rule of law, public provision of essential State functions, open justice, and democracy. These constitutional principles would be subverted if the policy were to operate within the existing regulatory framework for arbitration. The paper makes recommendations for possible modifications to the policy that would make it a better fit with the constitution.</p>

scholarly journals The Current Political Challenges to the Mexican Democratisation Process

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 87-113
Author(s):  
Lisdey Espinoza Pedraza
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Society ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Institutional Revolutionary Party ◽  
Current State ◽  
Revolutionary Party

This paper will attempt to answer what the current state of contemporary democracy in Mexico is after the return of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to the presidency by analysing the role of Civil Society, Political Society and the Rule of Law from 2012 to 2018. This paper will also explore if the party’s return was indeed a step backwards in the process of Mexican democratisation, or whether it was simply another step on a long road in which the various political parties alternate power. In 2018, Mexico elected its new president for the next consecutive 6 years along with a fair number of congressional seats and local gubernatorial posts, an election that again put Mexican democracy through a difficult test.

scholarly journals Presidential Signing Statements and the Rule of Law as an “Unstructured Institution"

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Shane
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Signing Statements ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Government ◽  
Signing Statement

The George W. Bush administration's use of signing statements embodied a disturbingly thin and formalist view of the rule of law that goes hand-in-hand with its vision of the separation of powers. Its signing statement practice was notable both for the extremity of the constitutional vision that these statements typically asserted—especially with regard to the so-called "unitary executive”—and with regard to their sheer volume, unmatched in the entire history of the executive. To understand the latter phenomenon, the Bush signing statements need to be understood not just as an expression of a constitutional philosophy, but also as an effort to institutionalize through faux law a highly presidential ethos as a fundamental element of the spirit with which the government conducts business.

Judicial Independence: Who Cares?

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil MacCormick
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Judicial Independence ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Constitutional Changes

This lecture discusses judicial independence. It notes that the increase in concern over judicial independence was due to recent developments in Scotland, England and Wales. The constitutional changes also led to new relationships between ministers and judges, which in turn has led to governmental declarations to respect the rule of law and judicial independence. The lecture also stresses the importance of considering and re-asserting the principles that justify judicial independence, as well as the underlying concept of separation of powers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document