19. British State System/ uk Political and Law System

Officially Great Britain is a state of the constitutional monarchy. That means that at the head of the state is a monarch (Queen or King). The monarch in law is the head of the executive, an integral part of the legislature, the head of the judiciary, the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Crown and the temporal governor of the Church of England. But the Crown is only sovereign by the will of parliament and the Queen acts on the advice of her ministers which she cannot constitutionally ignore. That's why it is often said that the monarch reigns but does not rule.

Parliament is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom. The main function of Parliament is legislating bills. Other functions of Parliament are to raise money through taxation to enable the government to function, and to debate or discuss important political issues. British Parliament is composed of two Houses - the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords is a partly hereditary upper chamber. It comprises 26 Lords Spiritual, 92 hereditary peers, all life peers and peeresses created under the Life Peerages Act of 1958 rewarded for specially good service. Their title is not inherited by their children. A great privilege of the Lords is the power to delay a bill for a year.

The House of Commons today is an elected House with a nation-wide representation. Of its 650 MPs 523 represent constituencies in England, 38 in Wales, 72 in Scotland and 17 in Northern Ireland. The party that has won the general election makes up the majority in the House of Commons, and forms the Government. The party with the next largest number of members in the House forms the official Opposition.

The Prime Minister is appointed by the Crown but automatically it is the leader of the party which wins a majority. And all other ministers are appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The number of ministers in the Government may vary from 80 to 100. The central institution of the British Government is the Cabinet. The Cabinet is composed of about 20 ministers personally selected by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet Ministers introduce legislation, control finance, arrange time-tables of the House of Parliament, conduct foreign affairs, control the colonies, exercise supervision over every department of administration. The Cabinet is constitutionally responsible to Parliament and can be forced to resign but in practice the Cabinet dominates Parliament.

The judicial system of the UK is represented by criminal and civil law. The criminal courts include: magistrates' courts that try the less serious offences, conduct a preliminary hearing and cases involving children (Juvenile Courts); and crown courts that deal with trials of the more serious cases, the sentencing of offenders committed for sentence by magistrates' courts, and appeals from magistrates' courts.

The civil courts include county courts which jurisdiction covers adoption cases, bankruptcy, divorce cases, actions concerning land, trusts and mortgages; and the High Court of Justice that covers virtually all civil cases.

When speaking of British Constitution usually the following three main sources are mentioned: Statute of Westminster, Common Law and Conventions. Statute of Westminster comprises the most important Acts of Parliament, which regulate political system of the country and rights and duties of British citizens. They are Magna Charta (1215), Petition of Right (1628), the Bill of Rights (1689), Statute of Westminster (1931), etc. Common law is based on precedent. When a judge comes to a legal decision he is to agree it with similar or analogous precedents. Convention is unwritten laws. Though not codified or written they have a binding force as rules of the Constitution. Conventions regulate the relations on different levels of the society, for example, a member of Parliament (Cabinet) cannot criticize his Government, he is either to agree or to resign - that is collective responsibility convention.

Questions:

1. Who is the head of the UK?

2. What are the functions of a monarch in the UK?

3. Why do we say that the monarch in Britain reigns but does not rule?

4. What is the supreme legislative body of the UK?

5. What information is given about the House of Lords and the House of Commons?

6. How is the Prime Minister of the UK chosen?

7. What are the functions of the Cabinet?

8. What is the British judicial system represented by?

9. What should be mentioned when talking about British Constitution?

10. What does convention imply?

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МОСКОВСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ 4

УДК 42 3

1. Psychology 3

2. Management 5

3. Marketing 8

4. Market Economy 9

5. Sociology 10

6. Advertising 13

7. Image of a Company. Image of a Leader 15

8. Family Problems in Great Britain and Russia 18

9. Teenagers: What Problems? 21

10. Insurance in Great Britain 24

11. Globalization 26

12. Forms of Business Organization 28

13. Terrorism 29

14. Religion and PR 31

15. The Rights and Responsibilities of the People in the Russian Federation 34

16. The Civil Rights and Responsibilities of the People in the UK 37

17. Types of Business Correspondence 40

18. Offers, Orders and Reclamations 42

19. British State System/ UK Political and Law System 44

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