Home > JOURNALS > IJCD > Vol. 6 (2020)
Publication Date
5-11-2020
Abstract
Bicameral legislatures exist around the world, with power divisions to create checks and balances on the constitutional order as a whole. In the context of constitutional design, this presents a variety of options of roles and rights given to each chamber at each step in both the legislative process and beyond. Taken as a whole, this taxonomy demonstrates there are nearly an infinite number of possibilities for separating powers between upper and lower chambers in bicameral legislatures. Often, these decisions are guided by the history of the country. For each federal legislature that places powers or votes in one chamber, the alternative can nearly always be found to exist in another country. Thus, this taxonomy outlines the different responsibilities presently designated to upper chambers around the world in both the legislative and extra-legislative realms but not limit the constitutional design possibilities to the current power divisions in existence.
Recommended Citation
Griffith, Carolyn
(2020)
"Taxonomy of Powers and Roles of Upper Chambers in Bicameral Legislatures,"
Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design: Vol. 6, Article 2.
Available at:
https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijcd/vol6/iss1/2
Included in
Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legislation Commons, Other Legal Studies Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Public Policy Commons