Many countries have secret laws unfortunately. The US is especially bad because they hide their secret laws behind a veil of "nation security" when they clearly have no requirement to do so. They legalise these secret laws through a secret court.. once again justified with "nation security".
Mind you, a secret court whose judges are appointed by the executive.
How are we meant to hold our elected representatives accountable when the goings on of these secret courts are not even open to them? How can this possibly be a democracy if we don't have the slightest say in what our executive does in our name?
So no, we don't live in a democracy anymore. Long live congress and God bless America.
I'm not sure that what you are talking about are things that are in the same category as the rest of the laws of either the UK or the US. For some rule to be classified as law, a bill must be passed by the legislative body of the government and added to the statute books; this is a public process.
There are other things that a court can use when deciding the outcome of some argument, perhaps the text of a contract or a set of rules that govern national security proceedings. In the same sense that the rules under which an employment or arbitration tribunal/panel operate under, these are not 'laws'. You cannot be prosecuted for breaking them, and so on.
So, while there are these extra rules that govern national security matters, and courts can decide on matters relating to these rules, with the entire thing being secret, which seems right and proper since they govern classified (or secret) matters.
How are we meant to hold our elected representatives accountable when the goings on of these secret courts are not even open to them? How can this possibly be a democracy if we don't have the slightest say in what our executive does in our name?
So no, we don't live in a democracy anymore. Long live congress and God bless America.