Separation Of Powers - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition separation-of-powers

Definition :

Separation of powers, means the division of governmental authority into three branches of government viz., legislative, executive and judicial, each with specified duties on which neither of the other branches can encroach; the constitutional doctrine of checks and balances by which the people are protected against tyranny, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1370.

The doctrine of separation of powers was adopted by the convention of 1787 not to promote efficiency but to preclude to exercise of arbitrary power. The purpose was not to avoid friction, but by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three depart-ments, to save the people from autocracy. The Development of Constitutional Guarantees of Liberty, Justice Louis Brendeis, 1957, p. 94.