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Legislative Disqualifications As Bills Of Attainder, Francis D. Wormuth

Vanderbilt Law Review

The separation of powers was first introduced into political discussion during the English Civil Wars of the seventeenth century by the political party known as Levellers. The object was to insure that persons be judged by general and prospective rules. If the legislative authority should decide a particular case, it might be tempted through partiality or prejudice to improvise a special rule for the situation. So the separation of powers was intended to achieve that impartiality in government which Aristotle called "the rule of law."

The doctrine of checks and balances was also introduced into political discussion during the Civil …