European Union Political Science



European Union Political Science

Introduction

There have been many changes that have occurred within the British constitution and political system as a result of British membership of the European Union. Here we will look at some of the most important and influential changes. While some are obvious, there are other, less clear, changes that have occurred as a result of the changing political face of Europe. We have to first look at what defines the British constitution, then discover what has changed.

Analysis

Traditionally, the British political system was run on a basis of Parliamentary Sovereignty, which is the basis for all representative democracies in the western world. This means that, in theory, Parliament is the highest authority in the land with no constraints on their power and that it has the power to make or repeal any law. There is no higher authority. It also means that if parliament decides to change, create and remove any law it can do so, it does not have to abide by decisions made by previous parliaments, though its successors will have that same power (Gower, 2000).

This led to the creation of many treaties and alliances. The Treaty of Dunkirk was one of the first, with several countries signing in an attempt to begin working together to help restore Europe to economic security (Grabbe, 1998). This was followed by the 'Treaty of Paris' which established the 'European Coal and Steel Community' (ECSC), which created a deal between France and Germany where both helped each other gain something. The 'Treaty of Rome', which established the 'European economic Community', which encouraged trade, in particular agricultural between countries. The 'Single European Act', had, as its main aim, the idea of establishing a single market, and the 'Treaty on European union' more commonly referred to as the 'Maastricht treaty'(Henderson, 1999).

British political system is Britain joining the European Union and the signing of other treaties with different countries. One of the first of these to profoundly affect the British political system was the Treaty of Rome which established the European Economic Community. In 1986 the Single European Act committed member states to attempting to create a single, Europe wide economy and establish a single market with free trade agreements (Hindley, 1996).

The biggest change in British Politics in recent years has been that since joining the EU that body's laws now have precedence over UK ...