separation of powers

• 'The executive is the branch of government that has responsibility for carrying out laws'
• separation of powers

  1. Way of arranging the states political and legal institutions so that liberty is protected
  2. About the nature and function of different powers which a state can exercise
• Montesquieu


  Identified 3 organs of state
• The organs of state

  Legislature- deliberates and makes the law

  Executive- implements the law and administers the state

  Judiciary- Interprets and enforces the law
• Separation of powers

  Munro states -No organs should exercise the functions of the others or exercise any control over them
• what is the bipartite separation?

  Legislative power

  Executive power
• What is the Tripartite separation ?


  Executive power

  Legislative power

  judicial power
• Munro


  'no liberty if the powers are not separated'

  'power over the life of citizens would be arbitrary'
• Institutional perspective


  Can draw a distinction between parliamentary democracies and presidential systems
• Functional perspective 


  Do the institutions of the state perform separate and distinct functions
• Montesquieu

  • 'There is no liberty if the judicial power is not separated from the legislative power and the executive power'
  • If it were joined with the legislative power, the power over the life of citizens would be arbitrary because the judge will be the legislator'
  • If it were joined to the executive power, the judge would have the strength of an oppressor
• 3 organs examples

  • legislature- Monarch in parliament, crown, House of commons, House of Lords
  • Executive- Crown, Prime minister, cabinet, civil servant
• Executive

  Tasked with guiding and executing the functions of the state through policies
• Judiciary


  Interpreting and upholding the law and reviewing secondary legislation to check against the abuse of power
• Disqualification Act 1975


  Judiciary may not sit in parliament
• What changes did the constitutional Reform Act 2005 introduce?

  • Introduced changes to the Uk's constitutional settlement
  • Establishment of supreme court
  • Law of lords no longer sits in House of Lords but in the supreme court
  • Replaced Lord chancellor as the head of judiciary with non political Lord chief Justice
  • Judicial appointments commission