Constitutional law worksheet with answers

Section 3 of the UK Human Rights Act 1998 requires courts to:

1. AStrike down any provision of an Act that cannot be read compatibly with Convention rights
2. BFollow every judgment of the Strasbourg court
3. CRead and give effect to legislation compatibly with Convention rights, so far as possible
4. DAsk Parliament to interpret unclear statutes

A codified constitution is one whose main rules are:

1. ACollected in a single written document
2. BBased entirely on unwritten customs
3. CFound only in judicial decisions
4. DAgreed afresh after every election

The Dutch Parliament (Staten-Generaal) consists of:

1. AThe King and the Council of Ministers
2. BThe Council of State and the Supreme Court
3. CThe provincial councils and municipal councils
4. DThe House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) and the Senate (Eerste Kamer)

In Hirst v UK (No 2), the European Court of Human Rights held that the UK's blanket ban on voting by convicted prisoners:

1. AWas within the UK's margin of appreciation
2. BViolated the right to free elections in Protocol 1, Article 3
3. CViolated the right to freedom of expression in Article 10 of the Convention
4. DWas justified because prisoners have no rights

In Soering v UK, the European Court of Human Rights held that extraditing a man to the US to face a possible death sentence would breach Article 3 because:

1. AThe US is not a party to the Convention
2. BOf the extreme conditions and long wait on death row
3. CThe death penalty itself always amounts to torture under Article 3
4. DHe would not receive a fair trial

In Dudgeon v UK, the European Court of Human Rights held that criminalising consensual homosexual acts between adult men in Northern Ireland:

1. AWas outside the scope of the Convention
2. BWas justified under Article 8(2) as necessary to protect public morals
3. CViolated the right to respect for private life under Article 8
4. DViolated only the right to marry

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 changed the office of Lord Chancellor so that:

1. AThe office was abolished completely
2. BThe Lord Chancellor became President of the Supreme Court and head of the judiciary in England
3. CThe Lord Chancellor gained power to dismiss judges
4. DThe Lord Chief Justice, not the Lord Chancellor, is head of the judiciary in England and Wales

Officers enter a writer's house and seize his papers under a warrant issued by a Secretary of State with no legal authority to issue it. In Entick v Carrington, the court held:

1. AThe search was lawful, because state necessity justified seizing the papers
2. BThe search was unlawful, because state action needs legal authority
3. CThe search was lawful, because the warrant was signed
4. DThe writer could only complain to Parliament