Each branch should be, for the most part, in Madison's opinion, independent. ... Beard argues that the Constitution was essentially an economic document based upon the concept that the fundamental private rights of property are anterior to government and morally beyond the reach of popular majorities. ...
As it isn't written in a single document the British constitution derives from five major sources, these are, firstly, Statute Law, which is the main source of the part written element of the constitution, and comprises of Acts of Parliament and subordinate legislation, this is the most important of the five sources and has increasingly displaced Common Law as the most extensive form of law in Britain. ... After the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776 came the "launch of a grand revolutionary experiment in popular democracy" (Miroff, Seidelman & Swanst...
