The British Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The British Constitution - Essay Example This discussion outlines that parliamentary sovereignty is the main feature of British constitution. Though the constitution is unwritten in one single document, it is not entirely unwritten. It is also mostly embedded in the written form through various statutes, judgments and treaties apart from the conventional principles. In countries like the USA whose democratic origin has been very recent, writing constitution for a new country after their independence from British rule was a necessity. But, parliamentary democracy in Britain has a very long history and the Parliament of UK is one of the oldest democratic institutions in the world. After the merger of the Parliament of Scotland in 1707 and Ireland in 1801 with the English Parliament, it has been known as the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The country has an established judiciary system with a long history and the system has been evolving over the period of time mainly based on precedents in the legal landscape. This paper stresses that that parliamentary sovereignty is the fundamental principle of the un-codified British Constitution. There were controversies at the time of UK’s accession to European community based on the concerns that law-making functions could eventually be transferred to the EC Commission and the Council of Ministers. After the accession of the UK to  European Economic Community, European common law has gained preeminence in the UK which is inevitable. In Thoburn v Sunderland City Council it was observed â€Å"All the specific rights and obligations which EU law creates are by the ECA incorporated into our domestic law and rank supreme.

LEGAL ENVIRONMENT 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

LEGAL ENVIRONMENT 3 - Essay Example The pharmaceutical industry in the developed countries is one such industry which has recently been condemned as relentless in the protection of its rights to the extent of infringing on ethical principles and humanity. This has been the major theme of Cooper, Zimmerman and McGinleys report in the Wall Street Journal (2001). The arguments presented therein shall be discussed in the following sections. In Cooper, Zimmerman and McGinleys article (2001) the authors have presented issues related to the controversial legal and ethical debates surrounding pharmaceutical companies of the developed nations. The main arguments are that pharmaceutical companies charge exorbitant prices for their products even in poor countries which cannot afford to buy their medicines. This is especially true in the case of African countries where the major AIDS population depends on imported medicine for curing the disease. No doubt, the stance that the pharmaceutical companies had taken justify their business position nevertheless, one needs to also understand that corporate philanthropy is not limited to charity and donations. It extends to corporate social responsibility as well. Ethically, pharmaceutical companies need to consider the human side of business as well; especially when the majority of their consumers are patients belonging to poor and under developed countries. According to Boateng (2001 ) the Big Pharmas are not the inventors of lifesaving drugs. In fact research indicates that the majority of the drugs researched in the United States and in other developed countries have been public-funded projects which have been entrusted to the private sector pharmaceutical companies for manufacturing and distribution. The campaign against Africa and its generic drug importation is clearly a monopolistic approach to business practice and should be discouraged. Similarly, pharmaceutical companies across the world are pressuring world