How would people go about answering this:
The ideology behind the Doctrine of Separation of Powers is to protect institutions from outside influence. How is this achieved? (4 marks)
Would you just talk about the functions (i.e. Legislative, Administrative/Executive and Judicial)?.. or not?
Thanks to anyone who can help!
This question is open to interpretation. I read it as "what mechanisms are in place within the DoSP which help to ensure that the three arms remain seperate?" This is slightly obscure as you would generaly be asked to explain the doctrine or its effects rather than how it works, which requires a different angle. The way I would do it is:
1) brief explination of the doctrine (I would keep it brief as the focus is on 'how' rather than 'what')
2) Why the doctrine exists- mainly to avoid corruption.
3) How the doctrine achieves this- Impartiality of judges (and perhaps refference the "recent" implementation of 5 year terms for some judges affecting this), the original role of the governor general and executive council and the supremecy of parliament and the extent to which it is supreme.
something along the lines of:
The doctrine of precedent provides that the body that makes the law (legislature), the body that enforces and interprets the law as well as settles disputes (the judiciary) and the executive institution remain three seperate and independant institutions.
The primary objective of this doctrine is to avoid the spread of corruption across the three arms as well as limiting it within any of the three institutions.
The doctrine provides a number of checks which are aimed at achieving this. For example, in an effort to provide independance for the legislature it is ensured that Parliament remains a supreme law making body and a parliament is only restricted by that parliament's constituion(s). Further, the judiciary's impartiality is protected as it is ensured that judges are not subject to political influence or pressure and are able to make decisions without bias (add in refference to 5 year term if you want).
Although in Australia the executive arm is strongly linked to the legislature, there remains provisions within the constitution amied at protecting the executive institution to an extent and providing the queens representatives with power (although through convention verry little of the Governors and governor general's executive power is ever used). Such provisions include the need to notify the governor general of a meeting of the executive council and some of the reserve powers.
^that's a lil bit scrappy (haven't done this for a whlie) and it took 4.5 minutes to write so it's about the right length for me.