Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers and Fundamental Liberties in Singapore

Running head: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Introduction
In the present assignment discussions have been made in relation to the separation of
powers found on the basis of the constitutionalism which in turn can be seen to be based on
distrust of power and is seen to be based on the desirability of the limited governance concept.
For achieving the desired result the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore is seen to be
dividing the power for the country’s governance into three separate branches. These three
branches of government can be classified as: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The
legislature enacts the legislation and the other laws of the country; the executive branch is seen to
be executing the laws that have been enacted by way of the legislature and finally enforcement of
those laws is done by the judiciary branch. Each of these branches are being protected from the
influences of the external powers while the prevention of the abuse of the powers that was
entrusted on them by the way of checks and balances. In the current assignment discussion of the
separation of powers between the three organs of the government has been done by analyzing the
Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, Article 9.
Discussion
The Government of Singapore can be seen to be practicing the separation of powers in a
partial manner. The President and the Parliament are the part of the Legislature. Supreme Court
Judges are seen to be the part of the Judiciary whereas the President, Cabinet, PM, Police, Civil
Services and the AGC are seen to be belonging to the Executive branch. As the Prime Minister
and the other ministers are the members of the Parliament the Cabinet acts as the Parliamentary
Executive (Ong, 2014). By way of weak sanction of the doctrine of individual minister

2CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
responsibilities the legislature is seen to be imposing a check on the executive branch. It has
basically been stated through the doctrine of separation of powers that the different governments
need to be separate and distinct for the preserving liberty (Barr, 2014). There should be a will
and power for working on its own by each branch of the government. In furtherance, there
should be independence in the work of the members of each department. Under the provisions of
the Constitution of Republic of Singapore each of the branches are seen to be performing the
duty to be acting as a watchdog over the other two departments. Each department can further be
held accountable for any decision that has been taken by the other two branches and are
responsible for ensuring that the decisions have been taken in a proper way and have also been
made public. The main aim of the three organs of the government is protecting the rights and
liberties of the citizens and to protect them against any kind of unfair rule or law.
Constitution can basically be defined as the collection of rules depicting both the
creations and the operations of the government and its different organs. As per the Article 4 of
the Constitution of Republic of Singapore, the Constitution is being regarded as the supreme law
of the country or in other words ‘mother of all laws’. Any law that is seen to be in contradiction
of the constitution is prohibited to be enacted. This can be described as constitutional supremacy.
By way of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore the basic framework and the
fundamental principles in relation to the three organs of the government are laid down. A system
of checks and balances are seen to be created by separation of power of the three organs of the
government. Although there has been no mention in the Constitution about the doctrine of the
separation of power yet its implications are seen to be present in the governmental system that is
being prescribed by the Constitution. The President has been vested the authority of the
Executive Branch by the Cabinet or the President or any other Minister under the authorization