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.

See also

• Commonwealth of Britain Bill
• Constitutional government
• :Category:English constitutionalists
• History of the British constitution
• History of democracy
• Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe
• UK topics