If law consists of rules that are subject to enforcement by the State and if politics is the process by which public policy is formulated and executed, then law is a product of the political process. The institutional structures that declare and enforce the law would have no authority to do so but for the political action, creating that authority, of those who wield power in a particular society.
Drafting the U.S. Constitution, for example, was a political act. It was the product of activities designed to create a framework for formulating and administering public policy. The document itself is a legal document.
It provides the foundation for our legal order and is "the supreme law of the land." This legal document, which was produced by the political process, channels, in turn, the subsequent exercise of legal and political power. It prescribes how the officers of the government shall be selected, what powers they may exercise, and what procedural and substantive limitations are placed upon the exercise of political power.
No comments:
Post a Comment