POLI 201 Lecture 6: Rule of Law
13 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Divide power between the federal and local governments. Bill of rights list of limits/privileges possessed by citizens. Constitutions are made up of written rules. Outside of the constitution, there are also constitutional conventions. A constitutional convention is essentially a practice that is consistently followed by government employees even if it is not legally required. To be considered a constitutional convention, a custom must exist for a good reason and followers must be aware that it is a rational rule. Conventions are just as fundamental as the set-in-stone constitutional laws. Unfortunately, constitutional laws and conventions can be hard to separate. The easiest way to separate them is to remember that laws are enforced by courts and conventions are enforced by political processes. Canada has quite a few constitutional conventions because of its british legal inheritance. Many national constitutions, including the united kingdom, new zealand, israel and parts of the canadian constitutions, are unwritten.
