英国国家概况——政治体系（二）

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3. The Judicial Body

The supreme judicial body in the UK is the House of Lords, whereas the Lord Chancellor presides over the administration of Justice; the Attorney General and Solicitor General also do some of it because there is no Minister of Justice in the British Government.

The judicial organizations at all levels are rather complicated. Roughly it can be divided into two levels: the central courts, which include the House of Lords and Privy Council, the High Court of Justice( includes the Queen’s Bench, the Chancery Division and the Family Division )and the Court of Appeal; and the local courts which are the Magistrates’ courts, the country courts and others in England and Wales.

The central courts only take the more important cases and high court judges still spend much of their time in London, sitting on the bench with magistrates who may help them in deciding on the “sentences”.

The local courts deal with all cases, big or small, but if the case is too serious for the magistrates, they send it to be tried at a higher court. Punishments are in the form of fines or imprisonment. The death penalty for murder completely abolished in 1969.

According to the British law, there must be the presence of the jury in most of the trials. The jury’s job is to decide whether the accused person is guilty or innocent in the light of evidence. They have no hand in deciding on the “sentence” which is up to the judges.

4. Political Parties

Political parties in the UK originated in the late 17th century. At that time, Parliament arguments were divided into two different groups the group which supported a strong parliament was known as the Whig Party, while those who supported the King were known as the Tory Party. The Whig Party later became the Liberal Party in the mid-19th century: the Tory took the name Conservative Party in 1932. These two major parties dominated the British government until 1914. Later, the new Labor Party took the place of the Liberal Party. Since the end of the Second World War, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party have been in power by turns.

The Conservative Party supports private enterprise and a free market. It is seen as the party of individualism.It protects the individual’s rights, and favours economic policies such as low taxes and reducing expenditures on social welfare. By and large, the Conservative Party is supported by those middle and upper-middle class.

The Labour Party was developed by the growing trade union movement at the end of the 19th century. It supported state control of important industries and a more equal distribution of wealth. It believes the function of the government is to act as a “redistributive” agent, passing wealth from richer to poorer by means of taxing the richer and providing support to the poorer.