Peter Parry wrote in
news:b11ou39bj8kuerk3bgesigj7fruis6fpvn@4ax.com:
> On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:06:40 +0000, Norbert Liecfeldt
> wrote:
>
>>The Supreme Court in Germany has the power to strike out laws and
>>declare them invalid. The Court can also instruct the government to
>>alter and amend laws within a certain time frame.
>>
>>To the best of my knowledge, no Court in the UK has that kind of power.
>
> Of course not, why should an unelected small group selected by
> politicians (half of whom have not themselves been elected) be allowed
> to subvert the decisions of Parliament for more than a decade each?
> For fairly obvious reasons it was necessary to force it upon Germany
> but most countries don't behave as Germany did.
>
The question of whether or not a Court should have that right is quite
another matter. You stated quite categorically that under a codified
system of law "Courts do not have the power to make or alter codified
law." and I demonstated that you were wrong.
The German Constitution, though worked out under ocupation, was not
forced upon Germany (or West Germany as it then was). And it wasn't so
much based on Nazi rule (which was the antithesis to the rule of law and
one could not legislate for that) but flowed from the very personal
experiences that those people who sat in the Constitutional Assembly
themselves had of the failure of the Weimar Republic. To avoid repeating
those mistakes was their aim, and they managed quite well.
I believe the US has a similar system of Constitutional Court, as have
many countries other than Germany.
> In the UK you can name your child anything you like. In France if
> the registrar doesn't approve of the name he may refer the matter to
> the local prosecutor, who can refer the matter to the local court
> which can refuse the chosen names.
Yes - it's a stupid law, infringing the right of the citizen. Almost as
stupid as the laws of lese majeste in England, or the law that forbids
the monarch from marrying a commoner; how about England's law about not
infringing religious sensibilities? You can have daft laws both under
common law systems and codified systems. But you still haven't told me
how "anything which isn't specifically allowed is illegal" in France.
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