Legal encyclopedia. Letter B

BILL.

In 1688, Jacob II was removed from the government, and in his place was built Wilhelm of Orange.

In 1689 Wilhelm Oransky signed an act that became the legal basis of the British constitutional monarchy. It is known under the name "Bill of Rights".

Its main provisions are as follows:

1) every law and every tax comes only from the parliament;

2) no one except the Parliament can exempt from the law, abolish the law or suspend it;

3) freedom of debate in parliament, freedom of petition is legalized, frequent and regular convocation of chambers is guaranteed;

4) Parliament determines the composition and size of the army for each given year and allocates funds for this.

The principles of the Bill of Rights were very important, but they required further development.

The reform of 1832 had far-reaching consequences, since it ended the medieval system of forming a higher

Representative body - the House of Commons. The most important political outcome of the reform was also the receipt of a stable majority in the parliament by the Whigs. A new faction-the magnates of the industrial bourgeoisie-was involved in a compromise with the aristocracy.

The struggle for reform created favorable conditions for the emergence of various kinds of trade unions. The reform made it necessary to fight for the votes of the electorate, the earlier it was neglected. Both parties - both Tories and Whigs - quickly understood this. The Tories were a conservative party, the Whigs were liberals.

The matter has changed dramatically with the rise of the Labor (Workers') Party, or more precisely, since when, having pushed the liberals to the background, the Laborites have become the real counterbalance to the Conservative Party.

Later, the Liberals merged with the Labor Party, the party retained its journalistic name "Whig". In the 50-60's. XIX century. Among the English workers a new social element appears-the working class

Aristocracy, consciously fed by the bulk of the working people.

The electoral law of 1867 established a new distribution of seats in the parliament and an electoral qualification.

In 1872, a secret ballot was introduced in England.

In the period from 1884 to 1885, the third electoral reform was carried out. In the new reform, the main, in addition to expanding the electoral rights in the counties, was the introduction of electoral districts. Each of them elected one deputy. It was believed that the deputy should protect the interests not only of those who elected him, but of the whole electoral district as a whole.

Parliament was elected for 7 years. Bourgeois deputies already constituted a considerable mass of members of the House of Commons. The political parity of the nobility and the bourgeoisie played the role of a balancer. However, the prevailing position passed to the bourgeoisie.

The House of Lords reform was carried out. It is usually considered a victory for the House of Commons. Even more it was the government's victory over the parliament.

The growing power of government

Specific mechanisms

Parliamentary intrigues, designed to slow down or stop the debate, which can serve the benefit of the opposition. Together, they undermined British parliamentarism with its unlimited freedom of debate.