However, the separation of powers between these three branches of government was not absolute; and moreover, several constitutional devices that were out of harmony with the Roman constitution were used frequently.
Mr Neumann is in good company when he declares that ordinary folk back in his Wisconsin district have sounder instincts on government than the pols in Washington.Over the years, this populism has bred constitutional devices designed to increase citizen control over elected representatives.
This constitutional device was not in harmony with the underlying genius of the Roman constitution, and its frequent usage eventually paved the way for the empire.
Decrees are a rarely used constitutional device that enable the government to effect the changes without a parliamentary debate or vote.
There had been a steady widening of provincial jurisdiction (especially in the field of welfare), an expansion of revenues and expenditures, and a growing sense of local importance partly nurtured in the constitutional device of the federal-provincial conference.
And then it became a very important constitutional device and an act of faith.
Unions were enraged by the government's decision to use a constitutional device to allow its watered-down labour reforms to be made into law without parliamentary approval.
Finally, federalism is yet another constitutional device to limit the power of government by dividing power and, thus, preventing tyranny.
Andrew Jackson's Democrats vied against the Whigs, who in the 1850's morphed into the Republicans, defining the two-party system America has had ever since -- an extra-constitutional device that has proved a great stabilizer of constitutional democracy.
Nonetheless, in criminal cases, the ultimate test of any device's constitutional validity in a given case remains constant: the device must not undermine the factfinder's responsibility at trial, based on evidence adduced by the State, to find the ultimate facts beyond a reasonable doubt.
Nonetheless, in criminal cases, the ultimate test of any device's constitutional validity in a given case remains constant: the device must not undermine the factfinder's responsibility at trial, based on evidence adduced by the State, to find the ultimate facts beyond a reasonable doubt". Allen, supra, at 156.
