Separation of Power
Definition of Separation of Power
Note: See a more comprehensive approach to the Separation of Power legal concept in the American Law Encyclopedia
The doctrine and practice of dividing the powers of government among several coordinate branches to prevent the abusive concentration of power. The distribution of powers embodied in the U.S. Constitution distinguishes functionally between government and people, and between executive, legislative, and judicial branches. While the Constitution creates three separate branches, it assigns them overlapping responsibilities that make them interdependent and that encourage the operation of a checks and balances system. The Congress is assigned the responsibility for passing laws, but these laws must be implemented by the president and the executive branch and can be interpreted, even declared unconstitutional, by the Supreme Court. The president is head of the executive branch of government, but the laws he or she is responsible for implementing and the money necessary for doing so come from the Congress. The Supreme Court also has the power to declare his or her actions unconstitutional. The framers used the doctrine of checks and balances to protect against absolute power coming to reside in any one of the branches. The doctrine of checks and balances is a device that simultaneously softens and augments separation of powers. Checks and balances soften the separation of powers because they require the concurrence of one branch in the work properly assigned to another branch, and they implement the separation of power because they specify the controls each part of government has over the other parts.
See Also
Constitutional Law (Judicial Function) Due Process of Law (Judicial Function) Federalism (Judicial Function).
Resources
Separation of Power Related Resources
- Separation of Power in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
- Judicial Function Keywords in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
- Judicial Function Keywords in the International Legal Dictionary
Notes
- “Separation of Power”, The American Law Dictionary, 1991, California
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