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General - Coggle Diagram
General
Constitutional Review
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Concrete
- arises from a current case
Abstract
- outside of concrete court procedings
Centralized
- question is referred to central const. court
- has monopoly on power to rule on legislation
- Kelsenian model
France
- Art.61-1
- dialog between lower courts and Const. Council limited
Germany
- Art. 100 para1
- lower courts can directly refer questions to const. court
Decentralized
- every judge can review legislation
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Elections
- must be free and fair
- Art.14 TEU: universal suffrage in free&secret ballot
Majoritarian systems
First-pass-the-post
- applied to single-member-constituencies (electoral districts)
- per constituency one parliamentarian is elected
- number of districts= seats in chamber
- candidate with plurality wins seat
Example: UK Commons+ US HoR
More sophisticated:
- candidate must receive abs.maj
- needs solution id no abs.maj is obtained
- Example: National Assembly in FR
- relies on run-off system
- 2nd round with strongest candidates with relative maj
A plurality vote/relative majority
- a candidate more votes than any other but not more than half of the votes cast
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Proportional Representation
- all seats in parliament are contested at once
- 20% votes roughly = 20%seats
List system
- Voters cast votes for parties, that fill seats with with pre-established lists of candidates
- Israel
Single- Transferable Vote System
- relies on multi-member-constituencies
- voters rank candidates of their choice
- system reallocates extra votes from candidates who safely won seat and the ones from eliminated candidates to remaining candidates of 2nd choice
- Ireland
Mixed-Member-Proportional System
- combination of proportional representation and single-member constituencies
- Germany
- single member constituencies
- ensure direct and personal link between parliamentarian and voters
- stable governments
- Can lead to distortion of preferences depending on district size
- leads to 2-party landscape because voters don't want to waste votes, therefore voting for strongest parties
Supermajority/Qualified majority
- specified level which is greater than the threshold of more than 50%
- 2/3 in UK, USA
- 55% in Council of mInisters
Sovereignty
- constitutions derive their authority from the people, who have enacted it
- ultimate power to exercise authority over oneself
External Sov: control over population and territory
- Internal Sov.: original source of authority within the state (mostly the people)
Royal Sovereignty
- absolutism: source of all public authority is king
- often coupled with religious claim
- monarch remains sovereign, also when granting people a const.
Popular Sovereignty
- people as concrete entity
- sovereign population exercises its will (referendum)
- in national sovereignty nation a abstract notion, can't act on its own: national representatives
Government Systems
Presidential System
- head of executive directly elected with own mandate
- not accountable to parliament
Parliamentary Systems
- head of executive not directly elected
- stays in office because of confidence of parliament
- can be voted out by vote of no confidence
Appointment/Dismissal of Government
- traditionally Monarch appoints/dismisses ministers
- change to Monarch only appoints dismisses ministers who enjoy majority in parliament
- Parliamentary investiture: PM/Minister elected by parliament and then appointed
- No-confidence Vote
- conditions:
- Procedural Limitation: cooling-off period, dismissal of parliament as whole, constructive vote: by dismissing a new minister must be elected
Semi-presidential System
- directly elected president
- exercises many executive functions
- only accountable to people
- Prime Minister also holds executive power
- accountable to parliament
- two-headed executive
Legislative Process
- usually upper chambers rights are restricted or can be overruled
Right of Initiative
- the one who proposes statutes decides what and when is discussed: agenda setting
- US Senate limited power comp. to HoR
- NL: 1stChamber doesn't have at all
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Right of veto
- total rejection is heavy measure id only slight changes are wished
- without amendment power: take-it-or-leave-it
- systems with equal chambers: perfect bicameralism (bill requires consent of both chambers)
State Form
Republic
- head of state is not a monarch
-republican order (FR, GER, not USA)
- from 'res publica'= common affairs/ good
- period in history of republican order (after or before monarchy)
Monarchy
- must not only be governed by one-man-rule
- most European monarchies are constitutional monarchies: Monarchs power derives from constitution
- can have republican values: democratic representation, ruled my many with consent of the people, separation of powers, limited government, rule of law
Democracy
Indirect/Representative democracy
- citizens exercise right to vote for their legislatures
- electors take decisions of public affairs on behalf of citizens
- public authorities are accountable to elected assemblies
- regular elections
- but usually government as lawmaker
Direct Democracy
- electorate decides specific issues through popular vote
- referendum (Switzerland regularly)
State Structure
Federation
- Division of territory: sub-units
- Regional Autonomy: sub-units have regulatory powers& separate institutions autonomous from central authority
- Federal Supremacy
-Regional Representation: sub-units represented at federal level in usually bicameral system: participation in federal decision-making
- powers flow directly from federal constitution
- protection of state's autonomous legislative powers
- involvement in procedure of constitutional amendments
- Constit. Court: independent arbiter solves conflicts between federal and state level
- Bundesrat represents regional governments
- vetoes can be overruled by higher than usual maj. by Bundestag (in many cases its consent is required though)
- everything not explicitly stipulated as federal competence is State competence
- Integrative (after 49)
- all states are guaranteed 2seats in Senate
- everything not explicitly stipulated as federal competence is State competence
- Integrative Federalism
Integrative Federalism
- states that used to be independent decide to pool powers to create federal system
Devolutionary Federalism
- formerly unitary states re-establish themselves as federation/ devolve a lot of power to regions to become federal
Symmetrical Federation
- each region is equal
- same scope of powers for all regions
Asymmetrical Federalism
- some regions have greater autonomy than others
- Example: Kingdom NL in favour to NL in europe
Unitary State
- Sub-units receive power from central authority
- powers laid down in laws
- powers can be taken back
- can also be quasi-federation by devolving powers to regions
Devolution
- giving parts of legislative competences to regions
- free to adopt or not adopt laws
Decentralization
- Central authority decides to hand down some executive (or legislative) competences to the regions
- execution of a centrally adopted law by the regions
Rule of Law
- be a Rechtsstaat
- respect for notion of legality
- guaranteed equality before law
- absence of arbitrariness
- seperation of powers
- independence of judiciary
- respect for human rights
German notion:
- seperation of powers
- binding nature of constitution
- binding nature of law
- legal certainty
- ban on retrocactive laws
- judicial review
- Art.20 notion of social state
Bicameralism
Upper Chamber
- historical reason: UK based on Feudalism (House of Lords)
- Corporalism, Federalism
- ensure that decisions are not taken hastily
- counterweight to majority of the day
- roman 'senatus' = council of elders
- claim for higher dignity and calmer working style
- sit for longer term and have fewer members
Weak and Strong Senates
- Suspensive Vote: lower chamber can override upper chamber
- Veto areas: for some legislation consent of upper chamber is required, absolute veto for these policies
- Perfect bicameralism: Senates consent is required for all bills, has absolute veto in all areas