Constitution of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has an uncodified constitution, consisting of both written and unwritten sources. There is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and law considered "constitutional law". Therefore the Parliament of the United Kingdom can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament and thus has the power to change or abolish any written or unwritten element of the constitution. The constitution is based on the concept of all sovereignty ultimately belonging to Parliament (Parliamentary sovereignty), so the concept of entrenchment cannot exist. The lack of a central written constitutional document explaining the fundamental principles of the state and relationship between its institutions and between the people leads some constitutionalists to regard the United Kingdom as having "no (formal) constitution". The phrase "unwritten constitution" is sometimes used, despite that fact that the UK constitution incorporates many written sources, statutory law being considered the most important source of the constitution. But the case remains that the constitution relies far more on unwritten constitutional conventions than virtually every other liberal democratic constitution.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Uncodified constitution - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Acts of Parliament - Parliamentary sovereignty - Constitutional convention

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The informal nature of the constitution has been conducive to a lack of the concept of "constitution government" or "constitutionalism" in the United Kingdom. The "government" (i.e. the executive) is drawn from the legislature, Parliament, since the UK has a Parliamentary system of government. The doctrine of "limited government", central in all written constitutions is not prominent in the UK constitution, nor is separation of powers or formal "checks and balances". Since the government is said to be "fused" with Parliament, and virtually every government has a majority, governments have no formal restraint on their legislative power. This is only broken if government Members of Parliament vote against a government bill, which due to a strong whip system has not occurred since 1986. The phrase elective dictatorship was introduced in 1976 to highlight the enormous potential power of government afforded by the constitution. In practice, some principles and elements of the constitution, such as the rule of law, are so ancient and fundamental to the UK's political culture they would be extremely difficult to abolish. Parliamentary sovereignty and of the rule of law have been widely considered the most important principles of the constitution since the nineteenth century, and attempts to substantially circumvent them would likely be met with backlash by the electorate or monarch.

Related Topics:
Parliamentary system - Separation of powers - Members of Parliament - Whip system - 1986 - Elective dictatorship - 1976 - Rule of law

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since entrenched "constitutional law" does not exist, the UK constitution is flexible, as opposed to rigid constitutions such as the Constitution of the United States. It is often spoken of as being "organic" by political scientists, that is, it has been "evolving" over time from its medieval origins. In theory, its flexibility makes its responsive to political and social change, especially through political principles expressed in conventions. Despite the tradition of freedom of speech and other rights in the UK, until recently there was no modern statute or document that attempted to codify the rights of citizens in the UK, common law precedents being the main source of "rights". This has been remedied in recent years, with the incorporation of some important written sources, such as European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights, which formally grants citizens specific negative rights that were previous lacking in the legal system. These sources are enacted in the European Communities Act 1972 and Human Rights Act 1998, respectively. Arguably these developments, and the Labour government's reforms from 1997 have improved the constitution, despite the lack of central written entrenched constitutional document. Labour's reform programme has conducted many reforms, including the Human Rights Act, devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, partial reform of the House of Lords and a Freedom of Information Act.

Related Topics:
Constitution of the United States - Common law - European Union - European Convention on Human Rights - Negative rights - European Communities Act 1972 - Human Rights Act 1998 - Labour - House of Lords - Freedom of Information Act

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~