Lesson 14

What is constitutional law?

There is no hard and fast definition on constitutional law. According to one very wide definition, constitutional law is that part of the law which relates to the system of government of the country. It is more useful to define constitutional law as meaning those laws which regulate the structure of the principal organs of government and their relationship to each other and to the citizen, and determine their main functions. Where there is a written constitution, emphasis is placed on the rules which it contains and on the way in which they have been interpreted by the highest court with constitutional jurisdiction. It I increasingly recognized that in most branches of law the purpose and operation of legal rules can be understood only with a knowledge of the social background against which the legal rules operate: legal procedures for the resolution of disputes arising within a family, a trade union or a limited company are an incomplete guide to the role of these institutions in society.

A further problem of definition is that, unlike legal system in which law is divided up into a series of codes, there is no hard and fast demarcation in Britain between constitutional law and other branches of law. For example, in the field of family law, important protection for family life is given by the European Convention on Human Rights, and family status is an important basis for many rules of immigration control. Numerous civil liberty issues arise out of criminal law and procedure. In property law, public control of private rights is a fertile field for the emergence of disputes involving a clash between public and private interests. These examples are not meant to suggest that constitutional law comprehends the whole of the legal system, but that the functioning of the legal system is of direct concern to constitutional law.

New vocabulary:

determine the main functions – определять основные функции

emphasis is placed on - особое внимание уделяется

the resolution of disputes – решение споров

civil liberty issues – вопросы гражданских свобод

clash between public and private interests – конфликт (противоречие) между общественными и частными интересами

comprehend the whole of the legal system – охватывать всю законодательную систему

be of direct concern to constitutional law – непосредственно подпадать под действие конституционного права

Упражнения