作者： 戴雅凝 律师助理
As the basic law of every nation,constitution plays an important role in the system of every country in theworld. Constitution is applicable to all citizens of a country. It is theproduct of the comprehensive effect of specific social, political, economic andideological and cultural conditions, and give back the real parallel ofmiscellaneous political power. It stipulates the basic tasks and systems of thestate, namely, the social system, the tenets of the state system, the fabric ofstate power and the basic rights and duty of civics.
Britain and the United States, thoughdifferent in the form of constitution, are both typical countries in the worldto safeguard people’s constitutional interests.In addition, the influence of a poignant contrast of governmentalpower within a state plays a straight role in the growth and change of theconstitution, diplomatic relations have an impact on the progress trend of theconstitution as well. The system ofrepresentation began in Medieval England and established the principle that theking should not levy taxes or make other laws without the consent ofparliament. Later, representative systems began to become widespread and wereused in Europe and the United States. People today call it representative law theconstitution, and it also creates constitutionalism. Although the Britishconstitutional system originated earlier, it has never established a writtenconstitution. The constitution of the USA is the earliest constitution withhandwriting in the whole world. The American Constitution establishes theprinciples of three-power independence, institutional balance, popularsovereignty, proper government, and separation of powers between the federaland the state. Twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution have now beenpassed. For example, the protection of the right to demonstrate in Americanlaw. Although the purpose of mass demonstrations is to vent theirdissatisfaction with the government, the freedom to organize demonstrationsalso reflects the protection of this right from another aspect.There is no doubt that the constitution hasthe function of protecting citizens’ rights. In the national legal system, theconstitution is not only the legal department that systematically andcomprehensively stipulates the basic rights of citizens, but also its basicstarting point is to protect the rights and freedoms of citizens. TheConstitution clearly stipulates citizens’ freedom rights, which shows that theyare sacred and inviolable, such as citizens’ freedom rights, freedom of speechand behavior, and other basic rights enjoyed by citizens. It can be said thatthe most important and core value of the constitution is that it is theguarantee of civil rights. However, in the specific implementation process, thereare often problems that the protection of rights is not thorough enough. In thesame case, on the streets of Minneapolis, a 46 year old African American man,George Floyd, was brutally executed and the police put his knee on his neck todeath. A person’s right to exist is the most basic right, but due to racialdiscrimination and other reasons, it is still unable to achieve real equalityfor all.In fact, no matter what form ofconstitution it is, there will be an expression to protect civil rights in essence,which leads to a problem worthy of discussion: are modern constitutionseffective at protecting the civil liberties of citizens? Furthermore, Britain’sprotection of people’s rights has developed and changed with the changes of thetimes, showing different trends. For example, it is traditionally understoodthat implementing parliament is the role and will of the British Supreme Court,rather than challenging the will of Parliament. In addition, the BritishConstitution has been pressing UKSC to develop constitutional jurisprudence soas to resolve conflicts of higher principles, such as the conflict betweenparliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law. As a member of the European Union, Britain has the obligation to acceptthe nationals of EU Member States. But it needs high-tech, service-orientedtalents, not illegal immigrants. In the end, Britain left the EU. Brexit, as athreat to the unity of the United Kingdom, sowed the seeds of adverse factorsfor constitutional chaos and then affecting people’s rights.In this paper, we do not give too muchcomment on brexit, but the reason why British leaders made this decision isobviously related to the protection of their own economy and national rights.As for the United States, President Trump’s decree has also changed therelationship between the protection of human rights in the United States andthe implementation of the constitution. For example, in almost any other era,the treatment of the Trump Administration’s travel ban by the lower federal courts would have been consideredtruly extraordinary (Maltz, 2018).The function of law can be understood asthe law has an influence on the social relations which are formed betweenpeople and which indicates the operation of state power and the realization ofstate will. From the perspective of regulating social norms of people’sbehavior, the law can regulate people’s behavior. On the other hand, law alsohas a social role, which is understood from the perspective of law to achieve apurpose in social life. The effectiveness of the constitution has the prioritythat can not be ignored. Today, in the international community, a fundamentalmoral principle is the protection of human rights. Whether this thing or thingmeets the requirements of human rights protection has gradually become animportant criterion to judge whether a collective maintains harmoniousrelations However, on the grade of specific practice, there are quite a lot ofdisputes about the effect of the Constitution in the protection of fundamentalhuman rights and the specific ways, and even caused serious conflicts. Inrecent years, as the world is experiencing globalization, one of the majorissues of the international community is to find ways to communicate throughconstructive dialogue and expand international sharing of human rights.Forexample, two countries that do not have extradition provisions. Or, althoughthe extradition clause has been agreed upon, it has not been effectivelyimplemented. How to deal with the suspect’s transnational crime and thepossible offender’s human rights protection. Demanding that everyone be treatedfairly and reasonably is certainly one of the things that the universality ofhuman rights would do. However, in real life, there are different economic power,political power, race, nationality and so on. People are divided into differentclasses, and in different degrees and rights, human rights will become limitedand unfair, and even people will become luxuries to serve the privilegedclass.The right to justice is to extend human rights to everyone equally. Theright to justice is not only a part of human rights, but also a necessarycondition for other parts of human rights. The issue of human rights is notonly confined to the framework of western civilization, but also needs to beconsidered in other civilizations synchronized with western civilization. Forexample, taking human rights in China as an example, China believes that humanrights are not only personal rights, butalso mutual rights such as collective rights and civil rights. Human rightsprotection should pay attention to the rights of all members of society toparticipate in and develop equally. However, Western civilization pays moreattention to personal dignity and authority, emphasizing personal feelings andsubjective feelings.In a nutshell, obviously, the protection ofhuman rights in these two civilizations cannot be the same. Therefore, whetherthe constitution effectively protects human rights is an important and worthyof discussion.
Work cited:
Khushal, Murkens Jo Eric. “Judiciousreview: the constitutional practice of the UK Supreme Court.” CambridgeLaw Journal (2018):1-26.
Maltz, Earl M. “The Constitution andthe Trump Travel Ban.” Social ence Electronic Publishing (2018).
中文译文：
现代宪法在保护公民自由方面的有效性
宪法作为各国的基本法律，在世界各国的制度中占有重要的地位。宪法适用于一个国家的全体公民。它是特定的社会、政治、经济和思想文化条件综合作用的产物，并回馈了杂性政治权力的现实平行性。它规定了国家的基本任务和制度，即社会制度、国家制度的原则、国家权力的结构以及公民的基本权利和义务。英美两国虽然在宪法形式上有所不同，但都是世界上维护人民宪法利益的典型国家。此外，国家内部政府权力的尖锐对比的影响对宪法的发展和变化也起着直接的作用，外交关系也影响着宪法的发展趋势。代表制起源于中世纪的英国，确立了国王未经议会同意不得征税或制定其他法律的原则。后来，代表制开始广泛使用，并在欧洲和美国使用。现在人们称它为代议法即宪法，它也创造了宪政。英国的宪法制度虽然起源较早，但从未建立成文宪法。美国宪法是世界上最早的成文宪法。美国宪法确立了三权分立、制度平衡、人民主权、适当政府以及联邦和州权力分立的原则。现在已经通过了27条宪法修正案。例如，美国法律对示威权的保护。虽然大规模示威的目的是为了发泄他们对政府的不满，但组织示威的自由也从另一个方面反映了对这一权利的保护。毫无疑问，宪法具有保障公民权利的功能。在国家法律体系中，宪法不仅是系统、全面规定公民基本权利的法律部门，而且宪法的基本出发点是保障公民的权利和自由。宪法明确规定了公民的自由权，即公民的自由权、言论和行为自由以及公民享有的其他基本权利是神圣不可侵犯的。可以说，宪法最重要、最核心的价值是公民权利的保障。但在具体实施过程中，往往存在权利保障不够彻底的问题。在同一案件中，在明尼阿波利斯街头，一名46岁的非洲裔男子乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)被残忍地处决，警察用膝盖顶着他的脖子将他处死。一个人的生存权是最基本的权利，但由于种族歧视等原因，仍然无法实现真正的人人平等。事实上，无论何种宪法形式，在本质上都有一种保护公民权利的表述，这就引出了一个值得探讨的问题：现代宪法在保护公民的公民自由方面是否有效？此外，英国对人民权利的保护也随着时代的变化而发展变化，呈现出不同的趋势。例如，传统的理解是，实施议会是英国最高法院的角色和意志，而不是挑战议会的意志。此外，英国宪法一直在敦促UKSC发展宪法学，以解决更高原则的冲突，如议会主权与法治之间的冲突。作为欧盟成员国，英国有义务接受欧盟成员国的国民。但它需要的是高科技、服务型人才，而不是非法移民。最终，英国脱离了欧盟。英国脱欧威胁了英国的统一，为宪政混乱埋下了不利因素的种子，进而影响了人民的权利。在本文中，我们对英国脱欧没有太多的评论，但英国领导人做出这一决定的原因显然与保护本国经济和国家权利有关。对于美国来说，特朗普总统的法令也改变了美国保护人权与执行宪法的关系。例如，在几乎任何其他时代，下级联邦法院对待特朗普政府旅行禁令的做法都会被认为是真正非同寻常的（马尔茨，2018年）。法律的作用可以理解为法律对人与人之间形成的社会关系产生影响，这种社会关系是国家权力运行和国家意志实现的标志。从规范人的行为的社会规范的角度来看，法律可以规范人的行为。另一方面，法律也具有社会作用，它从法律的角度来理解，是为了在社会生活中达到一个目的。宪法的效力具有不可忽视的优先性。今天，在国际社会中，一项基本的道德原则就是保护人权。这件事或这件事是否符合人权保障的要求，逐渐成为判断一个集体是否保持和谐关系的重要标准。关于宪法在保障基本人权方面的作用和具体方式存在不少争议，甚至引发了严重的冲突。近年来，在全球化的背景下，如何通过建设性对话进行沟通，扩大国际人权分享，是国际社会面临的重要问题之一。例如，两个没有引渡条款的国家。或者，虽然引渡条款已经达成一致，但没有得到有效执行。如何处理犯罪嫌疑人的跨国犯罪和可能犯罪人的人权保护。要求每个人都得到公平和合理的对待，当然是人权的普遍性所能做的事情之一。然而，在现实生活中，有不同的经济力量、政治力量、种族、国籍等等。人被划分为不同的阶级，在不同的程度和权利下，人权就会变得有限和不公平，甚至人就会变成奢侈品来服务特权阶级。正义权就是把人权平等地延伸到每一个人。公正权不仅是人权的一部分，而且是其他人权的必要条件。人权问题不仅局限于西方文明的框架内，也需要在与西方文明同步的其他文明中加以考虑。例如，以中国的人权为例，中国认为人权不仅是个人权利，而且是相互的权利，如集体权利和公民权利。人权保障应注重社会全体成员平等参与和发展的权利。而西方文明更注重个人的尊严和权威，强调个人的情感和主观的情感。总之，两种文明对人权的保护不可能完全相同。因此，宪法是否有效地保障人权是一个重要而值得探讨的问题。
发表评论