Preview

The Uk's Constitution: An Unwritten Constitution

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1201 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Uk's Constitution: An Unwritten Constitution
The UK’s constitution, once revered as the matchless constitution , has come under scrutiny in regards to whether the recent constitutional system that it holds is the best way to govern a country. The definition of a constitution can be stated as a “whole system of government of a country, the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government” .
The UK’s constitution is identified as an unwritten constitution, though not to be taken literally as the constitutional laws of UK can be found actually written but not necessarily all in the same place therefore a better description is stated as being “partly written and wholly uncodified” . It is said that the UK lacks codification compared to fellow countries like USA
…show more content…
differentiates the UK constitution is that countries with written constitutions created them after conflicts and catastrophic events such as the American War of Independence (1775-1783), before the creation of the US constitution or the French revolution in 1789 which their first …show more content…
Though it has been argued that the supposed supremacy of parliament is eroding due to the development of law such as entering the European Union in 1972 which now oversee and have the ability to override domestic law . The apparent problem with this is that UK legislatures no longer have power to enact legislation without abiding to EU law requirements . According to Sir William Wade, this resulted in what was said to be “constitutionally impossible” to do as the parliament of 1972 were now bounded by future parliaments which ultimately undermines the legal doctrine of parliamentary supremacy. A clear example is in the case of Factortame when it went against the UK’s constitutional practice that the most recent legislation was to prevail as priority, but instead invoked the European Communities Act 1972 over the Merchant Shipping Act which was passed in 1988 on the basis that when entering the European Communities (now known as European Union) the parliament made the agreement of “permanent limitation of their sovereign rights” and that should domestic

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The constitution of the United Kingdom is the sum of laws and principles that make up the body politic of the United Kingdom. It concerns both the relationship between the individual and the state, and the functioning of the legislature, the executive and judiciary.…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    1660, the British came back to England after 100 years. The British had abandoned the colonists and when they came back they would tax them and make them only trade with them. The British had the power to make the colonists do that , so technically they the British had the power to control them as well as they had the power to punish them. This is an example of tyranny because the British had absolute power to tell the colonists what to do. Their was about to be a tyranny in the constitution but, to avoid it the framers used federalism, separating federal powers, checks & balances , and small/large state compromise.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    United Kingdom changing radically with Labour’s landslide victory , the greatest since 1945. Led by Tony Blair, the party promised an ambitious programme of constitutional reforms which they themselves claimed would lead to “the most ambitious and far reaching changes to the constitution undertaken by any government in this century” (Hazell, Sinclair, 1999, p42)These reforms were also pioneered by Gordon Brown when he became Blair’s successor in 2007. While some of these amendments were successfully implemented others were abandoned or were watered down greatly. Also, the planned reversal of many of these reforms and other amendments made by the recent coalition Government must also be deliberated , however, as the coalition Government has only been in in power two years it is harder to see if they have had any real effect yet . Therefore this essay will focus on the constitutional reforms made by New Labour and will discuss that while they have made a difference, the impact has been limited and far less radical than they first proposed.…

    • 1694 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this essay, I will be analysing the strengths of the British constitution and comparing it to a codified constitution, I will also discuss its weaknesses and whether ‘extremely strong’ is an exaggeration and it lacks the qualities of a reliable constitution.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lsn Hsa Study Guide

    • 2993 Words
    • 12 Pages

    All governments have a constitution in the sense that they have some plan for organizing and operating the government…

    • 2993 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There is an element of truth in the given statement and this essay will seek to explain UK’s Parliament today does, to a certain degree, lack democratic accountability, and this can be shown in dominance of the (i) Executive, (ii) Unrepresentative, and its (iii) Detachment from citizens.…

    • 2004 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The USA has a written codified constitution and as a result, it may be described as too rigid and difficult to change. The UK in contrast, has an unwritten constitution in the sense that it is not contained in one single document so it lacks a formal constitution but is made up of a variety of different sources along with long-standing traditions. This has led to some saying it is too flexible and easy to change. While it may be argued, that the US constitution is too rigid and too difficult to change and this is highlighted through the lack of new amendments, I do not feel that this is a bad thing, it was desire of the Founding Fathers to be this way in order to ensure long-term political stability.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    • Sections 51 & 52 assign legislative powers to Cth Parliament. • Characterisation = process of determining whether a law falls within one of these heads of power. • The question is whether the law relates to the subject matter or purpose of the heads of power in a way that allows it to be described as a law “with respect to” that head of power. • Simplest view of ‘characterisation’& the judicial review of legislation encapsulated by Roberts J in United States v Butler (1936)…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How democratic is the UK

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It can be argued that Britain is both democratic and undemocratic; this can be shown via a range of issues relating to British politics and the society in which we live. The generally accepted definition of a democracy is a form of government in which the major decisions of government and the direction of policy behind these decisions - rests directly or indirectly on the freely given consent of the freely given consent of the freely majority of the adults government. There are two forms of democracy but the UK is run through an indirect or representative democracy as opposed to a direct democracy, which relies on referendums and would be difficult in a large, modern society. Furthermore, the UK is a parliamentary democracy, the government and representatives are intermingled meaning that the UK does not have separation of powers, meaning that the executive, legislative and judicial courts all work together unlike the American Presidential system which could create a lack in communication. In this essay, I propose to argue both for and against and eventually come to a conclusion whether the UK is democratic or not and give a comparison between the UK and the US in terms of democracy.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thirdly, the source states that a fully codified constitution would ‘bring us in line’ with other modern democracies around the world. There is a general feeling in Britain that if we are to be considered a modern European state, then Britain should conform to the ‘normal’ practice of being governed by a codified constitution. Many people believe that an uncodified constitution is weak in establishing core values and principles, which is vital to any political system around the world. Supporters of a codified constitution also argue that it would give citizens a clearer sense of civic…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The British constitution has flexible laws meaning they can be used to the advantage of the government and politicians when making decisions. Citizens of Britain do not know the laws in which the government need to follow; therefore we can never know when a law is being bent and will settle with an issue if the government is thought to have settled it. We as a population do not know whether or not we are being undermined, this in turn meaning we cannot scrutinise the government’s actions. If we was to have a written constitution the government and politicians would have to be more careful not to exceed boundaries when making…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is important to understand the structure of the parliamentary system within which the machinery of government operates. Parliament is known as a bi-cameral legislature where by decision making autonomy resides with the lower house. The House of Commons and the House of Lords exists as a check upon the powers exerted by respective governments thou right it’s debating and ratification functions. In theory, the bi-cameral legislature in British political system exists to ensure that policy and legislation is created democratically and secondly to protect the country from autocracy or the emergence of dictatorships. Although it could be argued that both of these functions of parliament have been apparent in recent history. In this essay I aim to answer the question to what extent is parliament an effective constraint on the executive.…

    • 1614 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A constitution is a set of rules that seeks to establish the duties, powers and functions of the various institutions of government. The constitution creates limited government so the government is checked and restrained therefore providing protection for the individual and their rights. the UK constitution is uncodified, which means that it is not all written down in one document therefore entrenched creating a higher law like that of America; it is split into several different locations, statute law, common law, conventions, works of constitutional authority and EU law and treaties. This means that the UK constitution is not entrenched or codified and sources such as common law and convention are not written down but are traditions and customs, the way government has always done things. The constitution is fit for purpose as it worked during the 2010 election when the outcome saw no overall winner and a coalition was created, it allowed for this to be done in just 5 days where as a codified constitution would have been much more ridged and have taken longer to work around or amend.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A.V Dicey gives an introduction to the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty as, “the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty means neither more nor less than this, namely, that Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and, further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having the right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament’. However, there are many discussions as to whether the UK joining with the European Union and adherence to the Human Rights Act 1998 renders sovereignty irrelevant. It will be argued that although following these rules may appear to be contradictory to sovereignty, co-operation is entirely voluntary, necessary, and there are many examples as to why sovereignty is not irrelevant, nor archaic.…

    • 793 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays