Работа с текстами по теме «Защита прав человека согласно Конституции»

Работа с текстами по теме «Защита прав человека согласно Конституции»

Work in pairs. Read the following texts about the American Constitution, the British Constitution and the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Use the information from the texts to compare the three Constitutions and find common things and differences.

Constitution of the Russian Federation

The Constitution of the Russian Federation is the supreme normative legal act, holding the highest juridical power, superiority, and direct action on the Russian territory. All laws and other legal acts adopted in Russia must comply with the Constitution.

The Russian Federation enacted the Constitution on 12 December 1993. The Russian Constitution is the basis of the Russian constitutional law and the most important source of domestic law. The Constitution provides for a federal state and introduces the concept of separation of powers. The Constitution provides for the separation of executive, legislative and judicial power. The legislative is structured as a parliament. The main legislative body, the Federal Assembly, is composed of two chambers. The Constitution deals with such matters as the national territory, the President, the Legislative, the Executive, the Judiciary and the fundamental rights contained in Chapter 2 of the Constitution.

The President states separate to the executive power. The President is the guarantee of the Constitution and possesses some executive, legislative and judicial powers.

The Government is responsible before the President and is headed by a Head of the Government, who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the State Duma.

The Russian Constitution is a rigid Constitution as to the complex procedure of adopting the amendments to the Constitution. The Constitution cannot be altered by the State Duma alone. The Constitution can only be amended under the procedure stipulated in Chapter 9 of the Constitution.

Constitution of the United Kingdom

The British Constitution is an unwritten constitution, not being contained in a single in a single legal document. It is based on statutes and important documents ( such as Magna Carta), case law (decisions taken by courts of law on constitutional matters), customs and conventions, and can be modified by a simple Act of Parliament like any other law. It contains two main principles – the rule of law (i.e. that everyone, whatever his or her station, is subject to the law) and the supremacy of Parliament, which implies that there is no body that can declare the activities of Parliament unconstitutional and that Parliament can in theory do whatever it wishes. The constitutional safeguard of the separation of powers between the Legislature (the two Houses of Parliament), which makes laws, the Executive (the Government), which puts laws into effect and plans policy, and the Judiciary, which decides on cases arising out of the laws, is only theoretical.

The United Kingdom is one of six constitutional monarchies within the European Community. Since the age of absolute monarchy there has been a gradual decline in the Sovereign`s power and, while formally still the head of the executive and the judiciary, commander-in-chief of all the armed forces, and temporal governor of the Church of England, nowadays monarchs reign but they do not rule.

Constitution of the USA

The American Constitution is based on the doctrine of the separation of powers between the executive, legislature and judiciary. The respective government institutions – The Presidency, Congress and the Courts – were given limited and specific powers; and a series of checks and balances, whereby each branch of government has certain authority over the others, were also included to make sure these powers were ot abused.

Government power was further limited by means of a dual system of government, in which the federal government was only given the powers and responsibilities to deal with problems facing the nation as a whole (foreign affairs, trade, control of the army and navy, etc.). The remaining responsibilities and duties of government were reserved to the individual state governments.

Article V allowed for amendments to be made to the Constitution. The Constitution finally ratified by all thirteen states in 1791 already contained ten amendments, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, to protect the citizen against possible tyranny by the federal government. So far only twenty-six amendments have been made to the Constitution.

The President now proposes a full legislative programme to Congress, although the President, the Cabinet and staff are not, and cannot be, members of Congress. This means that the various bills must be introduced into Congress by their members. The President is consequently completely powerless when faced by an uncooperative Congress. Given also the difficulties in ensuring that the laws passed are effectively implemented by the federal bureaucracy, it has been said that the President`s only real power is the power to persuade.