The British Parliament and the Executive Power

The article discusses the British model of relations between executive and legislative powers. The ‘parliament’ is considered in the article not only as the central institution of representative and legislative power, but as a specific concept of the British constitutional and legal doctrine. The article focuses on specific features of the British model of division of powers, as well as phenomenon of their fusion. In this context, the article presents detailed study of the British system of checks and balances. Among the ways of parliament influence on the executive branch, the author emphasises the control functions of the parliament, the principle of ministerial responsibility (individual and collective), as well as the activities of the official opposition in House of Commons, and the controlling and containing functions of the House of Lords. In the same time, the author researches the degree of involvement of the executive in the legislative function of the parliament, and tools limiting the impact of the government on the parliament. The author, however, sees in the fluctuating balance between these branches trends to establishing certain equilibrium. The separation of powers remains an essential fundamental principle of the British constitution, and the parliament through constitutional laws is now regaining its status as a keystone of the Westminster model of government.

About the author: Oleksiy Bruslyk – postgraduate student, the Department of State Building, Yaroslav Mudry National Law University, Kharkov, Ukraine.

Citation: Bruslyk A. (2016) Parlament Velikobritanii i ego vzaimosvyaz' s ispolnitel'noy vlast'yu [The British Parliament and the Executive Power]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no. 1, pp. 24–38. (In Russian).

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