Parliament

Parliamentary Supremacy and the Codified Constitution



Parliamentary Supremacy and the Codified Constitution

IntroductionThe paper discusses the extent to which the British parliament's supremacy can be consistent to the codified system. The British parliamentary structure does not emphasise a codified constitution due to the customs and traditions embedded in the British political since years. Parliament SupremacyParliament supremacy is a controversial concept which disputes about its desirability and nature. According to some analyst, the parliament sovereignty is being compromised through the codification of the instruction. The desirability of the sovereignty arguments suggests that the codification is hampers the flexibility and strengthens of the parliament. However, other believe that the supremacy of the parliament is the major barrier to the existence of a codified constitution, requisite to its unique riles and regulatory requirements. They believe that a codified system will be incompatible with the constitution of parliamentary sovereignty. The development of parliament supremacy emerged from the English civil war. Since then, it has expanded and is a dominant theme in British politics. The MP's which represent the constitutional via representative democracy are handed over the powers to assess, reject or pass legislations (Hoppit,20).

Codified ConstitutionCodified constitution\many globally have codified constitution. The codified sanctions are the result of some dramatic political change, often known a revolution. The method on which country adopts a constitution is related to the political and historical consent requiring this change. The legality of codified constitution is tied to the procedures by which they are adopted initially.The states that have codified constitutions had the constitution supremacy over the over ordinary statute law. If there is a conflict between the codified constitution and a constitutional statute, some or complete part can be declared as ultra vires, and is struck down as unconstitutional. The procedures required to amend a constitution. These methods may include constitutional convention, requiring a superiority of legislators' votes, convocation of a special constituent assembly, or a referendum process (Peele, 410)The constitution may provide the safeguard of their basic principles, even by amendments. If a former valid amendment of the constitution infringes the principles against the amendment, it may develop a so called unconstitutional constitutional law. Codified law comprises of a ceremonial preamble that outlines the state goals and the motivation of the constitution. The preamble omitted in some constitutions may carry a reference to God, or a fundamental value of the sate like democracy, liberty or human rights (Dan, 85).The British Political System and Parliament SupremacyAs per the definition put lined by the House of Lords in 2001, the UK has a constitution, by virtue of the fact that the government operates on the laws of the land. Yet, there is heated debate, both academic and cultural, about the nature of the political constitution. Some pints declare the ancient origins of the nation's political system and custom. These customs do not provide as great extent of consistency between parliament supremacy and the codification of the constitution. The lack of constitutionalism and the promotion of these laws are the possible factors which did not assign importance to the codification of the British law. Many analysts look at the events that accommodated the ...