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Key Elements
Key Principles
Key Disputes
Relationship between branches of government
Random Concepts
100
A Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom
What is part of the preamble to the Constitution Act 1867?
100
Developed by way of custom and precedent during the 18th and 19th century to regulate relations between the legislative and executive branch and exported to the British colonies as these achieved self-government.
What are the rules of responsible government?
100
Whether it will be used to strike down legislation.
What is one controversy over the effect of the unwritten principle of the "rule of law"?
100
The power to make or unmake any law whatsover.
What is parliamentary sovereignty or supremacy?
100
Ensures that the legal framework of the constitution will be operated in accordance with the prevailing constitutional values or principles of the period.
What are constitutional conventions?
200
The Constitution Acts 1867 and 1982
What are some of the parts of the written constitution?
200
Provides for the distribution of powers between legislatures.
What is federalism?
200
A living tree.
What is doctrine of constitutional interpretation in which the understanding of written text may evolve over time?
200
The principle whose functional purpose is identifying the institutional homes of each of the three major forms of public power and whose normative purpose is providing general boundaries for the operation of each institution.
What is separation of powers?
200
A solution to the fact that situations may arise not expressly dealt with in the text of the Constitution.
What is the reason for an unwritten constitution?
300
A practice or agreement developed by political actors and believed by those actors to be binding and which exists for a specific normative purpose.
What is a "constitutional convention"?
300
The first are unwritten elements of the constitution that prescribe how public power should be exercised in practice, regardless of the precise text. The second are unwritten elements of the constitution forming the baseline architecture of the Constitution, and derived from its underlying logic.
What are, first, constitutional conventions and, second, unwritten principles?
300
A solution motivated by a desire to ensure that minority or individual rights are not trampled by the will of a democratic majority.
What is constitutional entrenchment of minority or individual rights?
300
The type of decision-making that is retrospective (oriented to part events), localized in impact (oriented to individual disputes), and narrow in outcome (oriented to the application of principles to facts to produce the 'right' outcome).
What is judicial decision-making?
300
The subset of public law that ensures that state officials (executive branch) act within the authority granted by statutes (or, in the limited circumstances it applies, royal prerogative).
What is administrative law?
400
The term used to describe those components of the Constitution reduced to text by political actors.
What is the "written constitution"?
400
Facilitates democratic participation by distributing power to the government thought to be most suited to achieving particular societal objectives.
What is a reason for federalism?
400
The principles and rules of our public law order that would be violated if the executive where to act without regard to parliamentary statutes delegating power to it.
What are rule of law and parliamentary supremacy (and possibly constitutional supremacy, depending on the conduct)?
400
Delegation by parliamentary statute, royal prerogative (in a small number of cases) and a handful of codified constitutional powers.
What are the only sources of power available to the executive branch?
400
A means of ensuring that a constitution is not subject to whimsical changes
What is a super-majority requirement for constitutional amendment?
500
Presumed to continue until extinguished by surrender to the Crown, and which now has constitutional recognition
What is aboriginal title?
500
Vouchsafes to the citizens and residents of the country a stable and predictable and orderly society that shields individuals from arbitrary state action, done at whim and with recourse to simple power.
What is the rule of law?
500
The principle prioritized by those who take the view that "federal legislation should not be amended or redrafted by judicial rulings".
What is parliamentary supremacy (or sovereignty)?
500
The concept that ensures that disputes can be decided on their merits, without interference, that the decision-maker is insulated from retaliation, and that the decision-making process is depoliticized.
What is judicial independence?