The Rise And Fall Of The British Parliament Impeachment

Impeachment is a power criminal of .1 urisdiction, in which the Commons act as accusers and the lords as judge and jury, as a means of procecuting and punish- ing governmental influential and important off icals. Because the power subject is state legislature and power object is usually high position administrative or judical off icals, the power of impeachmaent is a consititutional method of supervising and controlling administration and judiciarg by legislature. Impeachment originated from acient historical heritage There are three main factors: The first was that impeachment germinated from Parliamentary old judi- cature. After Noman?s conquer, the great council composed the prelates and no- Llus who took advantage of?the pecr rank of thc land攁nd?the princinple of trial by peers? enlarging its judicature, gaining the power of declaration the king?s ministers treason or felony. The Commons naturely presented petitions in the Communities?name as accusers. The two houses co ?operated struggling for the king?s officcals?offenders, maintaining sanctity of law. The second reason was British Constitutional ideas and lawful tradition, such as the conception of 搕he king under the law?,the feudal formation and rapid developent, a series of consti- tutional articles declaration. As a res~t,the parliamentary members and jurists u- niversily set up the belief that the king and his royal officials must comply with the law and the ministers should be answerable in parliament for their offical ac- tions. The third one was the increasing power of parliament, mainly including two sidcs,one is cotrolling taxing, the other is gaining part of legislating. All these things were ready but eastern wind By the end of Edward III ,the particular situations inside state and the uphevaling political struggle betuween the parliament and the king contributed to the establishment of the power of parlia- mentary inpeachment. In 1376 ,the parliament were determined to see the king?s ?? ministers who were believed guilty of maladministartion, corruption, dereliction of duty and the like. The good parliament introduce a new form of legal proceeding as a meuns of punishing william latimer, Richard Lyons and a number of other great man. Subsequently, it was used to impeach the chancellar, michceal de Ia pole, in 1386,in reigns of Richard II ,and the duke of suffolk, a member of Coun- cii, in 1450 in the reigns of Herry 1V. Eearly impeachment had two basic charac? teritics: one was legal procedure, in which had the feature of common j udical prcedure and certain constitutional procedure. The other was constitutional con- tent and function. At that time, the power of parliamenary impeachment only as a j udical means of punishing unlawful ministers. In fact, its infection was very limit- ed. During the middle of 15 (慹Iuurv rind 16 Century, Impeachment &ink inlo ob solescence, replaced by other methods, such as attainder,which, although achiving similar results, did so by other different prcesses. As a deformity of the impeach- ment development,it melt the judicature and legislature together, not needing any assusations and trials that deprived the defendant of property and their lives. In over 100 years,it used frequently as a political weapon by the king and different great nobles factions. when entering into 17 century ,James I founded the Stuart monarchy , this brought memebers face to face wit...