UK lack of Written Constitution

UK lack of Written Constitution

UK lack of Written Constitution

Introduction

The UK is a unitary state and a constitutional monarchy. The monarch's role is basically ceremonial, with the queen or king taking decisions only on the advice of the Prime Minister. The latter is the most powerful figure in the executive, which is recruited from the legislature, Parliament. The Prime Minister appoints the cabinet, the body of ministers which formulates and applies government policy. All members of the cabinet support its collective decisions. This is known as the doctrine of responsibility . The cabinet is answerable to the Parliament, principally to the House of Commons. The Commons is an entirely elected body; the upper house, the House of Lords, is un-elected and, since reforms in the early 20th Century, can only delay legislation, not stop it.

The Constitution of United Kingdom

It is particularly true of the United Kingdom's constitution, which is more the product of evolution than conscious rational thought, that it is difficult to see clearly the demarcation lines between constitutional law, history, philosophy and political science . In order, therefore, to study the United Kingdom's constitution successfully, it is necessary to gain an insight into the history, politics and political philosophy which underpin the constitution. In the absence of a written constitution, there are two kinds of sources of United Kingdom's constitutional law. Firstly, there are legal sources, such as legislation, the common law and EC law; and secondly, non-legal sources, notably convention, parliamentary rules and customs and the works of legal scholars(Bradley Ewing 2003 pp.112-119) .

United Kingdom's unwritten constitution is old fashioned, and there is not even an agreement about what it actually contains as it is made up of various conventions, stature laws and ancient documents. Constitutions are supposed to be the fundamental social compacts by which authority and order are maintained, and so a British written constitution would not only provide a rigid means of protecting the people from the power of executive, but also would prevent the power of the Government from being too centralised, which is presently a major criticism of the Government. Nonetheless, under the existing unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom, there is no body that can authorise and legitimise the introduction of a written constitution. Parliament would first have many bills to declare that statute law and Acts are no longer valid, which would be immensely time consuming, and that is after a referendum has taken place to make sure the citizen all want a written constitution.

Written Constitution

A written constitution is a formal document defining the nature of the constitutional settlement, the rules that govern the political system and the rights of citizens and governments in a codified form. The UK's constitution is not written in a single document, but derives from a number of sources that are part written and part unwritten, including accumulated conventions, works of authority, Acts of Parliament, the common law, and EU law. Historically, the UK has not had a definable statement of ...