the british prliamentthe british parliamentthe british parliamentthe british parliament.ppt

The British Parliament British Parliament---supreme legislature of the United Kingdom. British Parliament consists of three elements: the monarch（君主）, the House of Lords （上议院）,and the House of Commons（下议院）. The power of the Parliament is in the hands of the House of Commons. The Function of Parliament Legislation (Debating and passing all laws): Voting on taxation in order to provide the means of carrying on the work of government Scrutinizing government policy and administration Debating the major political issues of the day the House of Lords In the 14th century parliament was divided into two parties: Labor and Commons. The Glorious Revolution(1688) marked the decisive shift in power from monarch to parliament. Since 1832,the year of the first Reform Bill passed, the House of commons has become more important than the House of Lords. The House of Lords has over 1,000 non-elected members. They are the Lords Spiritual(神职贵族） and the Lords Temporal（世俗贵族）。 The former include the two archbishops [ɑ:t??b???p] 大主教of the Church of England, Canterbury and York, and 24 diocesan bishops, whose eligibility [?el?d???b?l?ti]资格 to sit in the House ceases with their retirement. The latter are hereditary [hi?redit?ri]世袭的 peers and life peers. The hereditary peers are of five ranks: Duke , Marquis , Earl, Viscount and Baron.（公爵，侯爵，伯爵，子爵，男爵） The life peer is a person who is given the title as a reward for public service, and the title is not hereditary. Since the Lift Peerage Act of 1958, about 15 to 20 life peerages have been given each year, many of them to politicians, scientists and educators. The Parliament Act of 1911 abolished the veto power of the Lords and weakened the function of the House of Lords. The House of Lords could not prevent for more than one year a bill from passing into law. The interval was reduced to one year by a further Act passed under the Labor government in 1949. The House of Lords plays an important judicial function and is the highest court in the