The System of Checks and Balances

Lawmaking process in GB

The function of making laws in GB belongs to the Parliament, which comprises the House of Lords (the upper chamber), the House of Commons (the lower chamber) and the Monarch as its head.

Every year Parliament passes about a hundred laws directly, by making Acts of Parliament. It can be a very long process, so Parliament sometimes passes a very general law and leaves a minister to fill in the details. In this way it indirectly passes about 2000 additional rules and regulations.

No new law can be passed unless it has completed a number of stages in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords, and whilst a law is still going through Parliament it is called a Bill. There are 2 types of Bills: Public Bills, which deal with matters of public importance and Private Bills, which deal with local matters and individuals. There are also 2 kinds of Public Bills: Government Bills, introduced by a Government Minister and proposed in order to put the Government’s policies into effect. They usually succeed in getting through Parliament, because the Government has the majority in the House of Commons. The second type is Private Members Bills, promoted by individual MPs. But they often fail to complete their passage through Parliament, because of shortage of time and because the priority is usually given to Government Bills. Public and Private Bills are passed through the Parliament in much the same way. The Monarch also has to give the Bill the Royal Assent, which nowadays is merely a formality, because since 1707 (Queen Anne – vetoed unpopular Scottish Militia Bill) no sovereign has refused a Bill.

New legislation starts with the Bill is being introduced in the House of Commons, where it receives a formal first reading. It is then printed and read a second time, when it is debated, but not amended. After the second reading the Bill is referred to a committee, either a special committee made up of certain members of the House, or to the House itself as a committee. Here it is discussed in detail and amended, if necessary. The Bill is then presented for a third reading and is debated. If the Bill is passed by the Commons, it goes to the Lords, and provided it is not rejected by them, it goes through the same procedure as in the House of Commons. The power of the Lords to reject a Bill has been severely curtailed by the Act of 1949, which provides that any Public Bill passed by the Commons in 2 successive parliamentary sessions and rejected both times by the Lords, may be presented for the Royal Assent, even though it has not been passed by the Lords. The Lords therefore can only delay the passage of a Public Bill, but not reject it. Moreover a Money Bill must be passed by the Lords without any amendment within a month of being presented in the House.

After all procedures in both chambers, the Bill finally goes to the Monarch for the Royal Assent, and after receiving it, the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament. In order to be enforced, it must be published in Statute form, becoming a part of Statute Law.

Kinds of cases

As a juror you may sit on a criminal case, a civil case or both.

Civil Cases.

Civil Cases are usually disputes between or among private citizens, governments, government agencies, corporations and other organizations. Most often, the party bringing the suit is asking for money damages for some wrong that has been done. People who have been injured may sue a person or a company they feel is responsible for the injury.

In Civil Cases the party bringing the suit is called Plaintiff and the party being sued is called Defendant. In the same case there may be many Plaintiffs and Defendants.

The lawsuit is started by Plaintiff filing a paper called Complaint, in which the case against the Defendant is stated. The next paper filed is usually the Answer, in which the Defendant disputes that the Plaintiff has said in the Complaint. The Defendant may also feel that there has been a wrong ( здесь: правонарушение ), committed by the Plaintiff, in which case a Counterclaim will be filed along with the Answer.

It is up to Plaintiff to prove the case against the Defendant. In each Civil Case the judge tells the jury the extent to which the Plaintiff must prove the case. This is called the Plaintiff’s Burden of Proof, a burden which the Plaintiff must meet in order to win. In most Civil Cases the Plaintiff’s Burden is to prove the case by the Preponderance of Evidence, that is, that the Plaintiff’s version of what happened in the case is more probably true than not true.

In Civil Cases Jury verdicts do not need to be unanimous: only 10 jurors need to agree upon a verdict if there are 12 of them and only 5 must agree if there are 6 of them in the case.

Criminal Cases.

A criminal case is brought by the state or by a city or county against a person or persons accused committed a crime. The state, city or county is called the Prosecutor and the accused person is called the Defendant. In Criminal Cases the charge against the Defendant is called an Information or a Complaint. The Defendant has pleaded not guilty and its innocence should be presumed throughout the entire trial unless the Plaintiff proves the Defendant guilty. The Plaintiff’s Burden of Proof is greater in a Criminal Case, than in a Civil.

In each crime the judge will tell all the elements of the crime that the Plaintiff must prove Beyond Reasonable Doubt before the Defendant can be found guilty.

In Criminal Cases the verdict must be unanimous, that is all jurors must agree that the Defendant is guilty, in order to overcome the Presumption of Innocence.

US Political system

The USA is a presidential republic, which means that the government is composed of 3 branches: the legislative one, the executive one and the judicial one. This is a horizontal principle of separation of powers and it is set in the Constitution of 1787.

The legislative power belongs to the Congress of the US, which consists of 2 chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Senate is made up of 100 senators, 2 from each state, and is elected for 6 years, and 1/3 of the senators is reelected every 2 years. A senator must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the US for 9 years and live in the state he or she represents. The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice-President of the US, who serves under President and whose powers are determined by the President.

The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, who are elected every 2 years for 2 year terms. They represent the population of congressional districts, into which each state is divided, and the number of representatives depends on population of this state. A representative must be at least 25 years old, a citizen for 7 years, and live in the state. Besides, there are 6 non-voting members of the House of Representatives, who represent District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and other areas, and they can participate in debates over the bills, but have no right to vote. The presiding officer of the House of Representatives is the Speaker, elected by the House.

While elections in the Senate are held by a principle of fixed number of seats for each state, the House of Representatives is formed by a principle of distribution of 435 seats among 50 states, according to the population. Every 10 years the process, called Redistricting is held. It means that each state creates new electoral districts, corresponding to how many seats it receives, so that every district can propose its representative. It is done for 2 reasons: the changes of population, that may produce a new apportionment of distribution that changes the number of seats a state receives, and the population movement within a state, that may make the old districts unbalanced.

Congress makes laws, and each chamber of it has the right to introduce legislation and vote against the legislation, passed by the other chamber, but compromise is necessary for legislation to become a law. Congress also decides upon taxes, regulates commerce among the states and with foreign countries, sets the rules for naturalization of foreign citizens, declares war, confirms and rejects Presidential appointments.

The executive branch of the Government consists of the President, Vice-President and the Cabinet. The President is elected for 4 years, together with the Vice-President, and the same person can’t hold the office more than 2 terms. The President must be a citizen of the US by birth, at least 35 years old, live in the US at least 14 years. The Cabinet is composed of 15 different departments, and its function is to advise the President on many matters and enforce laws. The President, as a head of executive branch must carry out the government programmes approved by Congress. He also recommends programmes and laws to Congress and requests money for federal government operations.

The judicial branch of the government is headed by the Supreme Court, which settles disputes among the states. It consists of the Chief Justice of the US and a number of Associate Justices, appointed for life by the President and approved by the Senate. The Supreme Court may veto any law, passed by Congress if it contradicts the Constitution of the US.

The US is a Federal Union and separation of powers among 3 branches exists on horizontal and vertical levels. The horizontal division is regulated by the system of checks and balances, which presupposes that each branch has powers over the other two. The vertical level includes federal, state, county and local systems. The federal government deals with international problems and national matters. But every state has its own constitution and government, headed by the Governor, managing its local affairs. Their laws and decisions must not contradict the Constitution of the USA.

The System of Checks and Balances

Checks and balances is a principle of relations between 3 branches of power, which presupposes them to be separate and distinct from one another. This principle is provided by the US Constitution, according to which the powers, given to each branch are carefully balanced by the power of the other two. It means, that each branch serves as a check on the others, keeping them from gaining too much power or misusing its powers.

According to this very system:

1) Congress has the power to make laws, but the President may veto any act of Congress. Congress, in its turn can override veto by 2/3 vote in each house;

The President signs the bills to make them laws, but on the other hand, he can’t appoint officials of his administration or name federal judges without approval of the Senate (upper chamber). Congress can also refuse to provide funds requested by the President and has the right to impeach and remove the President.

2) The Supreme Court has the right to determine the constitutionality of all acts of Congress and to declare them to be unconstitutional. Congress in its turn can reject nominees of the judges to the Supreme Court.

3) The President is empowered to pardon convicted criminals and to name federal judges. But the Supreme Court has the power over the President in determining the constitutionality of his actions and declaring them to be unconstitutional.

The system of Checks and Balances makes compromise and consensus necessary, and protects against extremes, preventing new President from radically changing governmental policies just as he wishes. In the US, ‘government’ is determined as the entire system, that is the Executive, the Legislative and Judicial branches, but in fact and in practice the President is not as powerful as many people outside the US may think he is.

Elections in GB

Gb is a constitutional monarchy and Parliament consists of 2 houses: House of Lords, whose members are appointed by reigning monarch and House of Commons, whose members are democratically elected. Elections in the House of Commons during which members of Parliament are called by the Prime Minister are held at least every 5 years. This procedure is called General Elections.

UK is divided into 650 constituencies, across 4 countries, presenting a huge number of political parties. During General Election each of 650 constituencies elects one representative to the House of Commons.

A political party is an organization of individuals and factions, attempting to gain the control of the Government by winning elections. British Parliamentary democracy is 2 party system, which means that there are 2 main parties: 1 forms the Government and 1 is the official opposition. The leader of the official opposition receives the title of ‘Leader of her Majesties opposition’ and even gets a salary for the importance of this role.

Over the years there have been Whigs (Liberals) and Tores (Conservatives) as 2 main parties in GB. Since the development of the Labor party at the beginning of 20 century, there are Labor and Conservatives, but the number of other parties have also won seats in Parliament.

Nowadays there are 4 major national political parties in the UK. 1) Conservative party led by David Cameron, whose fundamental principles are: individuals have an absolute right to liberty; the role of government is to strengthen this liberty and choice; ownership is the strongest foundation of individual freedom; 2) The Labor party which wants to achieve: just society; an open democracy in which government is responsible to people; dynamic economy serving the public interest; 3) Scottish national party, which wants: to reduce a voting age to 16; progressive personal taxation; feminist development; government subsidized higher education; 4) The Liberal Democrats who: stay for the right of individuals to have control over the own lives; the role of government is to create a competitive market based economy.

The principle behind the General election is called The Simple Majority System, which means that its constituency (участки), the candidate who gets the most votes – is elected, and the Government is formed by the party, which wins the majority of constituencies.

Current GB’s Parliament includes: 331 consevatives, 232 labor, 56 scottish national party members, 10 liberal democrats and 21 of the others. (elections of 2015)

During General Elections The Prime Minister is picked by the reigning Monarch and is usually the leader of the party which wins the election. Prime Minister can be changed at any time without General Election through: 1) resignation, 2) party revote, 3) dismissal be the reigning Monarch. Once the Prime Minister decides to call General Election, he or she meets the Monarch to request that the Parliament is dissolved, after which if the Monarch agrees a royal proclamation is issued.

A General Election campaign usually last for 3 weeks. The government continues in office, but MP’s leave the House of Commons and return to their former constituencies, as prospective candidates. Parties spend a lot of money for advertising their policies, but the don’t buy time on television, as they do in USA, instead they are given a number of strictly timed ‘Party Election Broadcasts’, and hold a daily news conferences on TV.

Parliamentary Reform

GB is a constitutional monarchy with a Parliamentary system of goverance, which provides Bicameral Parliament: 2 chambers. For many years there was a debate on the following issues: 1) should the House of Lords be reformed? 2) should the Lord Chancellor be a Cabinet Minister, the Speaker of the House of Lords and the head of the Judiciary at the same time? 3) should there be any changes in the House of Commons?

One of the most important reforms carried out by the Government was started by the Parliament act of 1911 and introduced by then liberal government. It concerned the unelected House of Lords, whose members received or inhabited the title of MP’s. In 1997 when the Labor party led by Tony Blair came to power, a new reform of the House of Lords was introduced. Tony Blair the leader who is now a British Labor Party politician served as the Prime Minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007, and as the leader of the Labor party from 1994 to 2007. He got incredibly popular for his support of the US policy and also for his public response to the death of Princess Diana in 1997. He has also become the youngest Prime Minister since 1812 and he has led the Labor party to victory on Elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005. Moreover he served as the Prime Minister for 3 successive terms. He got resigned in 2007, when the level of public support declined, because of criticism of GB’s policy in Iraq. Also there was a scandal about electoral campaign, held by Labor party in 2005, claiming that some sponsors of the party were offered honored titles in response to huge sums of money. After inner elections in 2007 Gordon Brown, the Minister of Finance became the leader of the Labor party.

The House of Lords act of 1999 removed the right of most of hereditary peers to seat and vote in the House of Lords, so that all voting members could only be life peers, honored for their service.

Several years ago the Law Lords both helped to make laws during legislative process and then independently judged, how they were applied, which was rather strange. So under the Constitutional reform act of 2005, the Supreme Court of the UK took over the judicial functions from the House of Lords in 2009 and put the relationship between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary on a mordent footing, insuring the separation of powers. Nowadays functions of the House of Lords are: 1) to consider and revise legislation, 2) to scrutinize the executive, 3) to debate and report on public issues.

The Government also scrapped some powers of the Lord Chancellor, the second highest ranking in the UK, who is a member of the Cabinet and who is responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of courts. According to the reform, Lord Chancellor’s function of the presiding officer of the House of Lords was removed, leaving the choice of presiding officer of the House of Lords to the House. Now Lord Chancellor is a member of a Privy Council and of the Cabinet and his post now is called Secretary of State for Justice. He has a role in appointing many judges in the Courts of England and Wales. He also perform some function related to the Church of England, being one of 33 Church Commissioners. And he is the keeper of the Queen’s conscience.

The Jury Service

The right to trial by Jury of our fellow citizens is one of the most important rights and is guaranteed by the Constitution of the US. At the end of previous century it was reintroduced in Russia.

Juror listens all the evidence presented at trial and ‘to decide the facts’ – that is to decide what really happened. The Judge ‘decides the law’ – what means making decisions on legal issues that come up during the trial. Jurors should not try to decide these legal issues, sometimes they will even be asked to leave the courtroom while these issues are being decided. Jurors mustn’t have any special knowledge or ability (no legal training), they should just keep an open mind, concentrate on the evidence being presented, use its common sense and be fair and honest. It is vital for them to be impartial with regard to all people and all ideas and not to be influenced by sympathy or prejudice.

Jurors are chosen at random from voter registration records and placed on list of potential jurors. Then they give their answers to the Questionnaire, which are evaluated to make sure, that the candidate is eligible for jury service. To be eligible you must be over 18 years old, a citizen of the US, a resident of the county which he or she is to serve as a juror, able to communicate in the English language and if the candidate has been convicted of a felony, he must have his civil rights restored. Candidates who meet these requirements may be excused from Jury service if they have illness that would interfere with their ability to do a good job, would suffer great hardship if required to serve, or unable to serve for some other reason. After all procedures the candidate becomes a part of the ‘jury pool’, the group of people from which trial juries are chosen.

The Selection of the Trial jury starts with the selection of a ‘jury panel’, after that potential jury will be directed to report, along with other panel members, to a courtroom in which a case is to be heard once a jury is selected. The judge, assigned to the case will tell about the case and will introduce the lawyers and the people involved in the case. The jury will take an oath, by which he promises to answer all questions truthfully. The judge and the lawyers will ask jurors to find out if they have any personal interests in it or any feelings that might make it hard for them to be impartial. This process of questioning is called Voir Dire, a phrase meaning ‘to speak the truth’, and some questions may be very personal, but jurors must answer them completely and honestly. During the Voir Dire the lawyers may ask the judge to excuse any members of panel from sitting on the jury for this particular case. This is called Challenging a juror.

There are 2 types of challenges: Challenging for cause, which means that the lawyer has a specific reason for thinking that the juror would not be able to be impartial. There is no limit on the number of panel members that the lawyers may have excused for cause. The second type is Peremptory Challenge, which means that the lawyer doesn’t have to state a reason for asking that the juror be excused. Unlike challenges for cause the number of peremptory challenges is limited.

Depending on the type of case, there will be wither 6 or 12 jurors. The judge may also allow selection of one or more alternate jurors, who will serve if one of the jurors is unable to do so because of illness or some other reason.