Parliamentary sovereignty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Parliamentary sovereignty - Essay Example The notion of Parliamentary Sovereignty has been central to democratic practice for a considerable period of time. In a democracy, the legislature is elected by popular vote and this has been a major feature of the English Constitution. In the initial stages of democracy in Britain, liberty was at grave risk due to monarchical power.1 As a consequence of the doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty, the Parliament was empowered to enact or rescind any law whatsoever. In addition, no individual or organisation was permitted by English Law to set aside or overrule legislation enacted by Parliament. In R (Jackson) v Attorney General,2 Lord Hope stated that Parliamentary Sovereignty was not absolute. Thereafter he referred to the enactment of the 1972 European Communities Act and the 1998 Human Rights Act which had effectively diminished the power of Parliament to legislate.3 There was disagreement among their Lordships, regarding the ruling in R (Jackson) v Attorney General. This divergenc e in view related to whether the process detailed under section 2 of the Parliament Act 1911 and 1949, could be employed by the House of Commons to extend the life of Parliament beyond 5 years. The decision in the Jackson case apparently supports this view. Most of the members of the House of Lords were against this conclusion.4 However, they were signally unable to substantiate it in a manner that was consistent with promoting the supremacy of Parliament. In particular, Lord Hope highlighted the fact that the notion of absolute legislative sovereignty of Parliament that had been derived by Dicey from Blackstone and Coke was undergoing gradual change. However, in his judgement in this case, Lord Hope refrained from explicitly declaring that the courts lacked the power to question the validity of legislation for the reason that the latter was incompatible with union legislation.5 However, Lord Hope was of the opinion that union legislation was a tangible constraint on Parliamentary S overeignty. As per Lord Hope, the doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty was central to the Constitution. However, due to certain developments, Parliamentary Sovereignty was not absolute. Consequently, it would be incorrect to contend that Parliament’s freedom to legislate is unrestricted.6 In addition, Lord Hope stated that the rule of law, which was implemented by the courts, was the decisive controlling factor, and that the Constitution was founded on this element. Furthermore, Parliamentary Sovereignty would be rendered a hollow doctrine, if the general public refused to acknowledge legislation enacted by it, on the grounds that it was extremely offensive and incongruous. The fulcrum of the British Constitution is the doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty. Dicey, wrote extensively on the doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty and deemed it to be the underlying feature of British political institutions, as well as the very bedrock of constitutional law.7 As per Dicey, parlia ment can repeal or enact any law and the judiciary cannot hold a statute to be invalid for the reason that it breaches legal or moral principles.8 Thus, every fundamental law, with the exception of the principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty, can be altered by Parliament. One of the critical features of the rule of sovereignty is that no parliament has the power to bind its successors. Thus, there is no avenue, whereby a parliament can ingrain an Act of Parliament.9 In other words, every Act of Parliament can be repealed by subsequent legislation. Dicey was a strong proponent of the thought that the Rule of Law would be affected by discretionary power, as the latter would ultimately result in arbitrary decisions. This has been criticised by some scholars, who have contended that discretion is inevitable in a modern state, if a wide range of regulatory and welfare duties have to be carried out.10 All the same, several important values are incorporated in the Rule of Law, such as acces s to justice, accountability, certainty, due process, efficiency,

A Poets response to place is rarely purely descriptive Essay Example for Free

A Poets response to place is rarely purely descriptive Essay In this essay I will write about whether I agree with the statement above, or not. I will base my conclusion upon a detailed examination of two poems. I will look at the ideas and techniques poets use, language and imagery etc. I agree with the above statement, I feel nothing is purely descriptive, for example when someone says That house looks deep-rooted and daunting the quote is descriptive as well as being someones personal opinion. To one person it may look daunting but to another the house may look safe and restful. Whenever someone describes something, it always includes an opinion, so nothing can ever be purely descriptive. I will back up my opinion by looking at the two poems: London -William Blake (1757-1827) Dover Beach -Matthew Arnold (1823-1888) London is a poem about William Blakes interpretation of the dark side of London, he talks about how everyone is suffering, and how everyone is looking for freedom, no one has a future. Dover Beach is a poem about a beach in England, Matthew Arnold is describing what he feels is wrong with the world, and the reasons for the problems we have. London A poem of social protest, against the suffering of all who live in a world such as this. Written in 1789 (during the British industrial revolution). Not a poem of observed factual detail but Blakes perception of London, he uses the traditional form of alternate rhyming lines to imitate the repetitive predictability of the circle of suffering. London shows that: if the institution and structure of a place is corrupt then the people can never have a chance for innocence. In his poem Blake describes to the reader how there are legal restrictions on the roads, Charterd street. Also how the river Thames is governed Charterd Thames The quotation shows that even a river which should seem free, is owned , restricted. When Blake describes the restrictions, he is also enlightening the reader about the state of the residents of London, mind forgd manacles this quotation shows the depression and imprisoning of people, in their own mind. People are searching for liberty. People in London are abandoning the church because there lives are going so wrong Every Blackning Church appalls. The word plagues really gives us the impact of the place he was walking through, its a very pungent word. In this Poem, Blake uses disconnected stanzas, almost to describe the place where he is , nothing is stable, including peoples life. The rhythm of the poem is monotonous, there is not one positive image or feeling. There is also assonance to reinforce what he is saying. In this Poem, Blake starts to describe London, but as soon as he does, he describes the way people live and how they drastically lack liberty. Dover Beach is a melancholic poem. Matthew Arnold uses the means of pathetic fallacy, when he projects the human feeling of sadness onto an inanimate object like the sea. A repetition of neithernor in stanza 4 underlines a series of denials: . . . neither joy, nor love, nor light/ Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; (l. 33-34). All these are basic human values. If none of these do truly exist, this raises the question of what remains. With these lines, Arnold draws a nihilistic view of the world he is living in. Throughout the poem, the sea is used as an image and a metaphor. At first, it is beautiful to look at in the moonlight (ll.1-8), then it begins to make hostile sounds (grating roar (l. 9); tremulous cadence (l.13)) that suggest a general feeling of sadness. In the third stanza, the sea is turned into a metaphoric Sea of Faith (l.21) a symbol for a time when religion could still be experienced without the doubts brought about by progress and science (Darwinism). Now, the Sea of Faith and also the certainty of religion withdraws itself from the human grasp and leaves only darkness behind. Matthew Arnold, not only describes Dover beach, he describes he thoughts on the world, and why things are the way they are. To conclude with both the poems I have looked at, have reinforced the statement: A Poets response to place is rarely purely descriptive I have shown by using London and Dover beach that a poet always does so much more than simply describe a place, the poets own thoughts and feelings shine through. The reader gets taken deep down into the poem ,and finds out why the poet feels the way he/she does. Each poem is an insight to the way poets feel about places. Neither poems just describes a place, therefore I empathize with the above statement.

Romeo And Juliet Play And Movie Comparison Film Studies Essay

Romeo And Juliet Play And Movie Comparison Film Studies Essay The crown of English literature for plays, embedded with timeless and priceless gems, rests certainly on the head of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare has created masterpieces in every possible genres of play. Romeo and Juliet is an everlasting (or ever grey due to tragic over tones?!) play which draws undivided or unparallel attention of the writers even during this modern era. Apart from enjoying immense popularity when it was enacted as a drama during the early part of the sixteenth century, the beginning of mid twentieth century witnessed this play being converted into movies in 1968, and 1996. Both the movies stayed faithful to the original storyline; however, the 1996 version, Baz Lurhmann adopted the storyline to reflect the revealing trend of dispute among two feuding families. It is an exciting task to make a detailed study of the play, and its comparison in different aspect with the immensely popular 1996 version directed by the Australian, Baz Lurhmann. Romeo and Juliet, though termed as tragedy carries more of Shakespeares comedy elements. Love is obviously the dominating and most vital theme of this play. The whole play is intertwined on the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet at their first sight. In this play, love supersede other characteristics such as loyalty, emotions etc. In this play, the lovers deny the family and the entire world and proceed with their marriage. This is evident from the words of Juliet, Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, I / And Ill no longer be a Capulet (Romeo and Juliet. 2.2. 38-39). Romeo abandons his close friends, Mercutio and Benvolio and even risks his life and returns to Verona for the sake of his lady love even after being sent in exile. Love becomes a riding force for every incident narrated in the play. The lovers are emotionally triggered and take impulsive decisions; by this, they go against the norms of this world. Also, love is described as a religion. This is clear in the lines describing Romeo and Juliets first meeting. The readers can observe that Juliet has no words to explain her love for Romeo and thus refuses to describe it in words. But my true love is grown to such excess / I cannot sum up some of half my wealth (Romeo and Juliet 2.6. 33-34). Thus, it is clear that both the lovers are not able to explain their love and differentiate it with the society, family and religion. Their inability to draw line between their love and other ties can be said as a vital reason for their tragic end. By this, their love takes a back seat and death and violence occupies the front seat. The delicate ingredients of family feud, immature teenage aspirations and above all the raging love between the teenagers provides a great and ideal platform for Shakespeare to come up with an immortal tragedy. It is quite natural that film makers were inevitably attracted and motivated to make an interesting movie from the play. The project of making a movie on Romeo and Juliet certainly has some challenges to be encountered. Firstly, in the narrative, the vivid descriptions of the various scenarios are brought out in a several lines of verse; while the same can be made into a visual presentation involving much lesser times and words. Secondly, certain specific features in the realm of plays such as soliloquy are brought out in a distinctive style but picturization of the same is a different proposition altogether as the technical advancements has facilitated to project the actors expressions and bodily gestures by way of close-up shots and suitable editing in a forthright manner which is not possible in the play. Again, the advanced film making technique with avenues like lightning, wide variety of locales, costumes, advanced make-up facilities, make-up for an effective combination to produce excellent visual effects as compared to the limitations in the enactment of the play. Thus, the avenues are open for effecting the most picture perfect visualization. Baz Luhrmann has been successful in innovating the adaption of the screenplay in a different background scenario drawing a unique visual style, reflecting the politics and trends that existed in a combination of 1940s, 1970s and 1990s. Luhrmann deposits the play in the modern Verona beach; this can also be interpreted as reminding part decaying Miami and part Mexico City as frequent and high crime rate areas (Berardinelli, 1996). Accordingly, fast cars with roaring engines in the movie replace the horses in the play. Guns come in to occupy the place of swords and daggers. This kind of a hybrid with an old play in new setting makes a startling impression on the viewer. While trying to bring out the directors intent, it would be in order to bring out certain important scene of the play, especially pertaining to the love-scene. The way it has been brought out in picturization acquires a special credit. Firstly, the balcony scene is considered by many scholars to be the highlight of the play where the impact of youth love is brought out vibrantly to be stronger than all the forces that work against it. Luhrmann takes Shakespeares use of 190 lines and reduces it to 90 lines. He also switches the venue from the orchard to the swimming pool. However, he manages to retain the main intent of the lovers (Modern Film Adaptations of Shakespeare). Again, the camera work here is quite impressive: in usual cases the camera is moving frantically, however here the camera remains fixed in a tight close-up as Romeos dialogue, But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? (Romeo and Juliet 2.2.2), and the camera stays extremely close to the lovers as they disco ver each other and realize how much they are attracted to each other and how deep in love they are with each other. This scene take place in the pool courtyard of the Capulet mansion and is noticeably more muted than other scenes; the importance of words and feelings gain ascendancy allowing Shakespeares poetry to come through in full bloom (Modern Film Adaptations of Shakespeare). While essaying on the directors perspective, it is worthwhile to discuss about the technical credits of the movie: the camera is always seen roving around; there are many instances in the movie where rapid cuts and screaming soundtrack might make the viewer doubt whether he is watching a rock-video! Also, the camera tricks, the special effects such as a roiling storm and the rebellious splash of colors right through the movie gains priority relegating the romantic theme into the background, in the process, lose certain more intangibles of intricate romance. This is more manifested in the first few scenes of the movie and tends to get corrected as it progresses. In conclusion, any adaptation of a Shakespeare play is determined by two major factors. The first is the competence of the director. The second factor is the ability of the main cast members. Any other innovations and unconventional flourishes applied by the director and technicians will not carry any significance. With these viewpoints, the litterateur can appreciate that the play Romeo and Juliet has fallen in the capable hands of directors and actors such as Luhrmann, DiCaprio and Danes. This 1996 film version of the play, despite being interpreted as a loud and brash version, and despite being unacceptable to the high-level experts as a classic, it has certainly helped widen their perspective to venture into any movie that bears the credit based on play by William Shakespeare.

Archaeology: Imperialism, Colonialism and Nationalism

Archaeology: Imperialism, Colonialism and Nationalism How does archaeology interact with Imperialism, Colonialism and Nationalism? Have they contributed to archaeology in any way? Discuss with examples. When we look at the history of the archaeology, it can be said that the archaeology have always been a part of political activities however the most sensational and the conspicuous time of this interaction between archaeology and the politics can be dated after the French Revolution. With the French Revolution, the nationalism ideology raised and swiftly spread around the world with industrialization. At the first round, rising Nationalism awaken the curiosity of the people about their ethnicity. With this curiosity, people focused ethnicity researches to find out their origins and for this reason many archaeologist take a place in this quest. Governments started to support the archaeological excavations and many institutes started to be opened and many archaeology students started to be educated. In this manner, archaeologists’ interest began to turn form historic times to pre- historic times. With the emergence of Darwinian evolutionary theory, all these ethnicity research a nd the focus on the pre-historic excavations prepared foundation of Colonialism and Imperialism. Nationalism is defined by Trigger as â€Å"an all embracing sense of group identity and loyalty to a common homeland that is promoted by mass media, widespread literacy, and a comprehensive educational system.†(Trigger, 2007). As a result of Nationalism, in the 18th and 19th C. ,the ethnicity concept gained a significant role among the most European states and they started to courage pre- historic archaeologist to study the origins and early ethnic groups. Although all the European states made archaeology which serves to the nationalistic ideology, for me the most striking and passionate studies are done by Germans who carried nationalism into the fascism level in the Word War II. With the establishment of German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistoric Archaeology, Germans began to be professional in the pre-historic archaeology and they introduced culture-historical approach to the archaeology (Trigger, 2007). For the nationalistic archaeology, Kossina is the most striking name for that period in German archaeology. He claimed that the Germans are the noblest topic for the archaeological research and criticized the archaeologists who were studying classical and Egyptian archaeology (Trigger, 2007). He seeks for the origins of Germans and he wrote â€Å"Die Herkunft der Germanen†. He evaluated his archaeological data in a biased way and this evaluation encouraged â€Å"Germans to regard Slavs and other neighboring E uropean peoples as inferior to themselves and which justified German aggression against these people† (Trigger, 2007). Although Kossina died in 1931, he continued to be effective on the nationalistic and racist actions of Germany. For example, Nazis supported their discourses by using the works of Kossina. As a result of the nationalistic and ethnic researches, people became more aware of the different nationalities -such as the French, Germans, and English etc. It encouraged thinking that the people are biologically different from one another; therefore their behavior was determined by these racial differences as opposed to social or economic factor. This kind of thinking led people to think about â€Å"the inequality of the races†. Gobineau, who was a part royalist French family, claimed that â€Å"the fate of civilization was determined by their racial composition† (Trigger, 2007). Also in this time, Darwin’s evolutionary thought started to interact with the ethnicity oriented and nationalistic archaeology. Darwin claimed that plants and animals pass on their characteristics to their offspring however different offspring vary from each other. He believed that some of these offspring suited to their environment than others. This idea was explaining tremendous variety and the complexity of the natural world. He published his ideas in â€Å"Origins of Species†. This book was highly effective on the Herbert Spencer who introduced the idea of â€Å"survival of the fittest† and applied this view into the archaeology to explain the human societies in uni-linear evolution concept. He claimed that all human societies move from simple to complex (Johnson, 2010). As a result of this interaction â€Å"inequality of races† idea had gained scientific credibility. Additionally to these ideas, in 19th century Lubbock suggested that as a result of natural section human groups had become different from each other not only culturally but also in their biological capacities to utilize culture (Trigger, 2007). He regarded Europeans as the product of intensive cultural and biological evolution. His idea used to legitimize the British colonization and the establishment of political and economic control on their colonies. He also vindicates British and American colonialist from the moral responsibility for the rapid decline of native peoples in North America, Australia and the Pasific. This decline of these peoples was not because of what colonialists were doing them but because of the natural selection. This type of modality toward the native people increased the colonialism and the imperialism all over the world. As a result of colonialism, â€Å"historians of archaeology have sometimes justified acts of colonialist usurpation in adopting ethnocentric viewpoints which presuppose that archaeological pieces are better conserved in Western museums.†(Abadà ­a, 2006). For an example, the situation of Elgin marbles can be mentioned in this matter. Evans says, in 1816, Elgin Marbles were brought to the British Museum and all the drawings, excavation and the exhibition coast like  £35,000 to the British government. In 1821, Greece separated from Ottoman Empire and it created an endless controversy about the propriety of the ‘marbles’. What is beyond all of this discussion most people think that they would have great damage if left in their original home (Abadà ­a, 2006). With the increasing industrialization, which is the period inventions and developments, created the ideas in diffusionism and the migration to explain the cultural differences in past cultures. Many of the researchers rejected the culture evolution theory. As result of this, the idea of psychic unity, which is introduced by Adolf Bastian, lost its importance. It made racism much more powerful because the belief that every culture has a potential to develop their culture is collapsed. The idea that indigenous people were viewed as biologically inferior to Europeans became much more solidified. Writers and social analysts claimed that human beings were not inherently inventive. If there is a development in culture it should be a reason of diffusionism or migration. Also they said that the change was naturally belong to the human nature and it was not beneficial to people. Therefore it is supported that unchanging societies are the most convenient to human being. In this manner, indepen dent development idea in the cultural changes ignored and a belief emerged which is particular inventions were unlikely to be made more than once in human history. This kind of discourses solidified perceptions about the savage people inferiority. In the United States, the ‘myth of the mound builders’ was aroused and it has been thought that these mounds could not have been built by the Native People of America, who were considered too savage. Instead, they were built by a ‘civilized’ race that disappeared a long time ago (Abadà ­a, 2006). When the people see the mounds in Zimbawe and investigators claimed that this similarity is the proof pf prehistoric white colonization in Southern Africa (Trigger, 2007). To sum up, the interaction between archaeology and Imperialism, Colonialism and Nationalism developed after the French Revolution. Archaeological studies and the scientific developments to answer the questions in the archaeology have been abused by the politicians. The archaeological studies which suit the politician were encouraged and supported financially. Although this mutuality helped the archaeological developments, the results that archaeology reached had been used to satisfy the nationalist, colonialist and imperialist actions. Bibliography Abadà ­a, Moro O. 2006. The History of Archaeology as a ‘Colonial Discourse’.Bulletin of the History of Archaeology16(2):4-17 Johnson, Matthew. 2010. Archaeology Theory an Introduction. Trigger, Bruce. 2007. A History of Archaeological Thought.

A Separate Peace :: Free Essay Writer

What point of view does each character show in regards to their attitude to the war? The war is a symbol of how things are not always what they seem. Recruiting posters and propaganda to join the army convinced many boys into thinking the war is an exciting adventure. â€Å"The characters Gene, Finny, and Leper are used as opposing forces struggle between that cold reality of war and a separate peace†(Brian, Gatten), A peace away from the real war and all the terrible things that come. The attitudes towards war of Finny, Gene and Leper reflect their approach to life. Finny does not face the reality in life nor the war, Leper (stands on the sidelines) is isolated from life and the war, while Gene is a follower in life and the war. Finny does not face the reality in life nor the war by, finny first begins to create games. Because Phineas cannot face the reality of the real war. For him, these games are representative of the war. Finny made up these games and he made it so that he could be in control. This is just like Finny ‘s world of separate peace. Also finny does not fully understand the impact of war on people. He does not understand that war kills people physically and mentally. He also does not understand how it affects a person’s life. Finny is not present for the beginning of the fall session at Devon and as a result, the statement â€Å"Peace had deserted Devon†(knowles, pg. 132). Is true indicates the lack of peace†¦Ã¢â‚¬ the peace that the school had come to know when finny was present.†(Brian, Gatten) â€Å"With the lack of this peace, the door is open for the reality that is war, to enter†. (Brian, Gatten) Finny has his own reality, about the war. That is why he created the games to the substitute for the war. Leper’s attitude towards to the war is that he feels that was does not affect him. Leper is much like Finny because of his innocent, romantic view of the world, he loves nature and especially skiing during the winter. Leper is not popular at Devon due to his oddities, but he does not give any attention to such things. He joins the army after seeing a film about their ski troops although he is not even fighting is the war; he is shocked to find military life to be much different from what he expects.

Gene therapy :: essays research papers fc

Genetic disorders have been plaguing people for ages and causing fatalities. However, with new information and research, and something called gene therapy, hope now exists for these unfortunate individuals. Gene therapy is a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development. It has been around for a while now and is getting more advanced with time. Experimentation is an ongoing process with gene therapy. Ethical issues are something that has been accompanying the procedure since it has been used. New facts on gene therapy continue to be uncovered as we speak.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To start off, an overview of why people need gene therapy should be covered. Each of us carries about half a dozen defective genes. However, we remain ignorant to this fact unless we are among the millions of people who have a genetic disorder. About one in ten people has, or will develop some time later in life, an inherited genetic abnormality. And approximately two thousand eight hundred specific conditions are known to be caused by defects in just one of the patient’s genes. Some single gene disorders are pretty common, such as cystic fibrosis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most people do not suffer harmful effects from our defective genes because we carry two copies of nearly all genes. One is inherited from our mother and the other from our father. The only exceptions to this rule are the genes found on the male sex chromosomes. â€Å"Males have one X and one Y chromosome, the former from the mother and the latter from the father. So each cell has only one copy of the genes on these chromosomes. In the majority of cases, one normal gene is enough to avoid all the symptoms of disease. If the gene that may be harmful is recessive, then its normal counterpart will carry out all the tasks assigned to both. A disease will develop only if someone inherits two copies of the recessive gene from their parents.† (Web source #3) In other terms, if the gene is dominant, it alone can produce the disease, even if the counterpart is normal. Finally, there are the X chromosome-linked genetic diseases. Because males have only one copy of the genes from this chromosome, there are no others available to fulfill the defective gene’s function. Hemophilia is a common result of this.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To continue, how gene therapy works, should be explained. There are several different approaches scientists may use to correct faulty genes with therapy.

Essay --

â€Å"The world’s information is doubling every two years. Inter- national Data corporation believes that the Digital Universe will grow by 44 times that of 2009 by 2020. IBM estimates that data is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 64% a year or more.†[2] In such a scenario handling data in an effective manner is really important. There is a huge in- crease in data from experimental sciences. Data today comes in all types of formats. It may be structured or unstructured. Unstructured data is everywhere, some of the examples are satellite images, photographs and videos, social media data, scientific data, financial transactions and the list goes on.[3] Different types of information will have different properties. Managing and governing all these different variety of data is not easy. Beyond that managing the data without affecting the performance of the system is crucial. In this paper we will be going through four research papers from the Session Databases of CIKM 2012: Maui, HI, USA which discusses about the Information storage and retrieval. We will dis- cuss techniques that provide a better solution to manage data. The research papers present a storage system for Big spatio-temporal data, a model for positional access of rela- tional data, and approaches for querying DBpedia data and optimization of Data migration. 1. OVERVIEW In this paper, four research papers are discussed which focus on the storage and retrieval of different varieties of data. In the further sections we discuss how the papers we selected have given different models and techniques for effi- cient data management operations like storage and retrieval of different varieties of data. The organization of the paper will be as follows, section 2 will discuss... ... and how the approach gives better performance results. The other two papers Lushan et al [7] and Xiulei et al [8] provide good insights about quering DBpedia and optimizing data migration respectively. Lastly, there are no generalized methods for loading, re- trieving or as a whole handling and managing variety of data. Different approaches have to be used depending upon the kinds of data. There are numerous tools for capturing data and so the data is growing everyday bigger and bigger. Consequently, there is going to be increase in the number of tools to analyse the data because of its diversity. Each tool or technique is precise to a particular kind of data. At the user’s end, one has to learn various approaches to han- dle variety of data. To summarize, a generalized method of handling data would make life smooth. However, it’s not easy to design such a system.