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13 - Parliaments

from Part IV - State Institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2019

By
Nicola Lupo
Edited by
Roger Masterman  and
Robert Schütze
Roger Masterman
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Robert Schütze
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

In a modern sense, parliaments and constitutions are born together as two essential elements of the liberal state. Both of course had their own ancestors – in royal advisory assemblies and in legal documents binding the monarch in some way, respectively – but both reached maturity together, mutually presupposing and reinforcing. No (modern) constitution could be recognized as such had it not provided for a representative assembly, elected by all the citizens at that time entitled to political rights. Reciprocally, no (modern) parliament could define itself as a political representative assembly without one or more fundamental charters designing its main structural and functional features, attributing to it some prerogatives, and protecting the main political rights of the citizens, such as the freedom of speech, of the press and of meeting and association, in addition, of course, to the right to vote.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Constitutional Law , pp. 335 - 360
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Further Reading

Avril, P. and Gicquel, J., Droit Parlementaire (LGDJ, 2014).Google Scholar
Besly, N. and Goldsmith, T. (eds.), How Parliament Works, 8th ed. (Routledge, 2018).Google Scholar
Corbett, R., Jacobs, F. and Neville, D., The European Parliament (Harper, 2016).Google Scholar
Crick, B., The Reform of Parliament (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968).Google Scholar
Ismayr, W., Der Deutsche Bundestag (Springer, 2012).Google Scholar
Jan, P., Les assemblées parlementaires françaises (La Documentation Française, 2010).Google Scholar
Jennings, I., Parliament (Cambridge University Press, 1969).Google Scholar
Loewenberg, G., On Legislatures: The Puzzle of Representation (Paradigm, 2011).Google Scholar
Manzella, A., Il parlamento (Il mulino, 2003).Google Scholar
McKay, W. and Johnson, C.W., Parliament and Congress: Representation and Scrutiny in the Twenty-First Century (Oxford University Press, 2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norton, P., Parliament in British Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).Google Scholar
Oleszek, W.J., Oleszek, M.J., Rybicki, E.E. and Heniff, W.A., Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process (CQ Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Olson, D., The Legislative Process: A Comparative Approach (Harper, 1980).Google Scholar
Russell, M., The Contemporary House of Lords: Westminster Bicameralism Revived (Oxford University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Wheare, K.C., Legislatures (Oxford University Press, 1963).Google Scholar

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