Separation of Powers

The British government is the first one to be established on the basis of the separation of powers. Generally, the powers could be divided into three branches – the legislative （立法）,the executive （行政） and the judiciary（司法）. In principle, the legislative power is in the charge of Parliament, the executive power is in the hand of the government, and the judicial the Court.

However, in practice,the division among these three branches is not so absolute as that in the United States, because the Prime Minister (首相), who is the head of the government, is also the leader of the majority party in Parliament. Furthermore, he advises the monarch on the candidates of the Supreme Court judges. Therefore, the constitution of Britain is often described as having “a weak separation of powers”.