Essay
Separation of Powers in UK
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A 800 word essay on the Miller's Case and Its relevance to the Separation of Powers.
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Separation of PowersThe doctrine of separation of powers manifests the distribution of powers among the
principal institutions of state, i.e.. legislature, executive and judiciary, to safeguard
the citizens of a nation from despotism and fortifies the liberty of individuals by
assuring that too much power is not centralized in the hands of one person or an
institution. Montesquieu, a French political philosopher, considered as the principal
source of theory of separation of powers, stated the principle of separation of power,
in 1748, as ‘When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same
person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty... there is no
liberty if the powers of judging is not separated from the legislative and executive...
there would be an end to everything, if the same man or the same body... were to
exercise those three powers’ and he believed that that the three branches of
government must fulfil independent functions
The separation of powers also put the prerogative powers of monarchy to a limit. The
powers which are exercised by various institutions of government are outlined and
other two institutions are not granted to exercise the powers of third one.
Considering the jurisdictions of the institutions individually, legislature makes the
legally binding set of rules that apply to people generally i.e.. it has its legislative
functions as of proposing, scrutinising, amending and repelling legislation. Executive
aids in developing national policies on a wide range of subjects, foreign relations,
military actions and many more. The implementation of the laws to resolve various
disputes is performed by the judiciary. Also, the separation of powers emphasizes
that a single person must not exercise more then on of the functions. For instance,
an individual who is a member of legislature should not simultaneously be a member
of other two institutions and vice versa. (1)
Numerous times, it is noticed that these very institutions also act to protect the rights
of other one such as in the case of “R (Miller) v The Prime Minister and Cherry v
Advocate General for Scotland “, the judiciary protected the parliament from to be
prorogued by the prerogative powers in a crunch time of Brexit. The prorogation of
parliament is a constitutional law, and it is usually used to mark the end of a
parliamentary session. The parliament is not supposed to exercise its powers, enact
laws, or held meetings during the prorogation period. The prorogation of parliament
is not an unlawful act as the parliament does not remains in session permanently, so
it is undeniably lawful to prorogue the parliament, but the thing matter is for how long
the parliament has been prorogued. The period is of about six to twelve days, but the
parliament was prorogued for about five weeks. On the advice of the Prime Minister,
the Queen announced the prorogation of parliament, in a meeting of the Privy
Council held at Balmoral Castle as “the Parliament be prorogued on a day no earlier
than Monday the 9th day of September and no later than Thursday the 12th day of
September 2019 to Monday the 14th day of October 2019”. A withdrawal agreement
was formed for the smooth and orderly out exit of UK from the European Union, but
the agreement was rejected three times by the House of Commons, on 15th January
2019 (by 432 to 202 votes), on 12th March 2019 (by 391 to 242 votes) and on 29th
March 2019 (by 344 to 286 votes (2), so prorogation of parliament at that time is
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