Separation of powers principle consolidation in the world’s constitutions: the comparative analysis

MPu : 1.1.2 (Beinoravičius D.); 1.1.4 (Vainiutė M.)

The idea of separation of powers, originated in antiquity, was newly formulated in XVII century by the English thinker J. Locke. This idea was further developed by French thinker C. de Montesquieu. Their ideas had superior influence to development of legal thoughts, to the development of principle of separation of powers itself (V. Blackstone, J. Madison, A. Hamilton, J. Jay, A. V. Dicey etc.). The first legal embodiment of idea of separation of powers is being considered 1787 constitution of the United States of America. During constitutionalism, this principle widely spread in new constitutions of XIX and XX centuries. This article discusses how this principle was developed and implemented in all the stages of constitutional regulatory, including period from the end of XIII century till the end of the World War I, period between the two world wars, period from end of World War II till the XX century’s ninth decade and period from XX century’s tenth decade till now.It is being universally acknowledged, that the state must carry out three main functions: to legislate, to execute them out and to settle legal disputes. The principle of separation of powers, which is one of the most developed principle in constitutional doctrine, bases the organization of government and functionality in democratic state. The proper performance of state’s functions, necessity to guarantee rights and freedoms of persons and to protect society from government’s abuse of powers dictates the need to separate such functions and performance of them entrust to different authorities: legislative, executive and judicial. Each state’s authority carries out the functions assigned to it under its competence. All authorities have different and important roles, each authority is given respective competence, which concrete content depends on the form of state governance. In this article it is presented examples of states according to different management models, discussed the principle of separation of powers consolidation into constitutions and its implementation’s peculiarities.