Neednt say the reason Im updating..ahem...just a tinyyy diversion from study. I would say this week is going to be a crap week, but thats only half true. Its just one of those weeks of extreme highs and lows. Im dreading tomorrow. I have six hours of seminars - please shoot me. The week however, started well with birthday celebrations of my dear friend, Nehal. We had dinner at this restaurant called TAS, which serves mediterranean food (the result of living in London for the past six months has been an over indulgence in greek/turkish/lebanese cuisines. I know I am going to miss it for sure when I leave). Later, we headed to Potion Bar where we had killer cocktails for half-price. Go mondays! Oh my I had a delicious banana daquiri and mojito, which went straight to my head. Yea, Im a lightweight.




This evening, I went to listen to Lord Woolf (former Chief Justice and prior to that the Master of the Rolls) speak at LSE. It was my second time listening to him speak on the topic of the Rule of Law and the talk was as riveting as the first. His Lordship (cant break tradition but thats how Lord Justices are referred to as) spoke about the importance of upholding the rule of law in a democracy and the role of separation of powers. Basically, the doctrine of separation of powers refers to the separation of the three arms of government - executive (ministry, cabinet, whatever you want to call it), legislature (the parliament) and judiciary (the courts). The objective of maintaining a separation of powers is to ensure that no single arm of government exercises complete control of the state. So, for example, if the parliament passes an unreasonable law, then the courts may strike it down on grounds that it is contrary to public policy, or that it is ultra vires, or it breaches international obligations, or what not. In short, each arm of government keeps the other arm in check. In Australia, this separation of powers is clearly maintained. However in the UK, the position of the Lord Chancellor, controversially, threatens this very concept; the Lord Chancellor is both a member of the judiciary - he presides over the House of Lords and is head of the judiciary - as well as a member of the cabinet. So effectively, the Lord Chancellor has an executive and a judicial function which clearly goes against the separation of powers. In response, the Parliament passed the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which seeks to, inter alia, modify the functions of the Lord Chancellor office (drastically removing its role in the judiciary in furtherance of upholding the independence of the judiciary) and to create a Supreme Court which will be the final court of appeal in the UK. I find constitutional law is fascinating.

Alright, I ought to sign off soon. I look foward to the days following wed, my tentative plans include:

Thur evening- The Photographers Gallery & Woman in White theatre (finally..)
Fri - ladies tea and in the evening a quiet birthday dinner
Sat - British library (cultural excursion..hehe)
Sun - fly to Dublin (okay, I assure you this is my last flight till end of term)