civi anglo S1

• Great Britain


  An island, not a state, composed of Wales, Scotland and England
• United Kingdom (UK)


  A unitary state, not a federal state, composed of 4 countries: Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland
• Ireland is not part of the UK but part of the EU
• Constitutional monarchy


  The UK has a parliamentary system of governance where the power of the monarch is limited by the Constitution
• Separation of powers


  The courts are the body of the Government and guarantee the safeguard of the rule of law and democracy
• Until 2005, there was a fusion of powers in the UK, not a separation of powers
• Ratio decidendi


  The legal reasoning applied in a case that sets the precedent
• Obiter dictum


  Comments made by judges that are not part of the legal reasoning
• The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 created the UK Supreme Court
• Rule of law


  A legal system is not only composed of parliamentary sovereignty but also the rule of law, which means that the law must be general, stable, clear, and applied equally
• Pillars of the rule of law


  • The supremacy of regular law over arbitrary power
  • No one is above the law, including the monarch
  • Individual liberty is secured by the courts
• Parliamentary system (parliamentarianism)


  A system of governance where a parliament has a central role and the executive and legislative branches are intertwined, with the former being dependent on the latter
• Keir Starmer is the British politician who has served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition since 2020
• Legal equality, good government, and protection against retroactive law and double jeopardy are notions associated with the rule of law
• Double jeopardy is when someone can be prosecuted by the state more than once for the same act
• The first people in Great Britain came from a series of migrations from the Iberian peninsula, generally Northern Africa
• By 2400 BCE, there was a huge change in people's DNA in Great Britain, with the arrival of the Bell Beaker people from Central Europe
• Bronze Age


  • Marked by prosperity due to climate change and the introduction of metal working
  • Bronze was an alloy of copper and tin, with tin likely found in the South-Western part of England and Wales
• By the middle of the Bronze Age (1500 BCE), there were 500,000 people in Britain
• Bronze Age society


  • Appearance of communal roundhouses and a neatly organised system of field separation
  • Arising of hierarchies and the first hillforts for security
  • No existence of palaces, kingship or queenship, or a unified political entity
• By 1200 BCE, the climate in Britain deteriorated, becoming colder and damper, leading to a loss of fertile land and increased competition between tribes
• By the end of the Bronze Age, the Bell Beaker people started moving away from the traditional places of the Stone Age people and developing new rituals associated with water
• Around 1000 BCE, the first common feasts started to be practiced, which may have been a form of soft power and a way to honor the gods
• By the end of the Bronze Age (800 BCE), the production of bronze that had made Britain part of a trade network collapsed, leading to a period of decline
• Around 800 BCE, people in Britain started using iron, which was more efficient and easier to produce than bronze
• Recent DNA studies showed that the arrival of iron tools in Britain was not due to an invasion, but rather the adoption of the Hallstatt culture from Central Europe
• The Insular "La Tène" style is part of the Celtic culture that was adopted in Britain
• Hallstatt Culture


  Iron items similar to those found in Central Europe that were found in Britain after 800 BCE
• The DNA studies recently showed that the population didn't change upon the arrival of the new iron tools
• The Hallstatt Culture was shared anyway, it was adopted by other people
• The people of Britain didn't change but they started adopting cultural elements from the Hallstatt Culture
• Celts


  People from central and western Europe, referred to by Greek and Roman archaeologists
• By the 1st century BCE Julius Caesar says that the Gaul's people refer to themselves as Celts
• Prettanoi


  Term used by 400 BCE by Pytheas of Massilia to refer to the people from Britain and Ireland, meaning "the painted people" or "tattooed people"
• Celtic languages were probably spoken all the way to Turkey, but today only survive in Britain, Ireland and Brittany
• Celtic language groups


  • Continental Celtic (extinct)
  • Insular Celtic (Goidelic - Gaelic and Scottish English, Brythonic - Welsh and Breton)
• The Celts weren't a united group, there were regional differences that appeared in Britain already established in 55 BCE when Julius Caesar arrived
• Around 500 BCE, the climate had improved greatly, allowing people to grow more food
• The combination of iron use and better weather led to a drastic increase in agriculture during the Iron Age
• The Celts were a powerful and organized society in Britain, capable of exporting a surplus of production