United Kingdom Law quiz
Does the United Kingdom have a written constitution?
It is often observed that the U.K. has no ‘written’ or ‘codified’ constitution. It is true that most countries have a document with special legal status that contains some of the main features of their constitution. This text is usually upheld by the courts and cannot be changed except through a particularly demanding process. However, the U.K. does not have a single constitutional document of this kind. Still, it does have a constitution. The U.K. constitution is spread out in many places. This spread can make it more difficult to identify and understand. It is found in many places, including certain specific Acts of Parliament; particular understandings of how the system should operate (known as constitutional conventions); and various decisions made by judges that help determine how the system works.
What are the sources of the UK Constitution?
The sources of the UK Constitution are various, including laws and other less formal documents that have no legal force.
UK Acts of Parliament: Pieces of primary legislation enacted by the UK Parliament are a major source for aspects of the UK Constitution. These laws make provision for: decentralization agreements; the right to vote and the holding of elections; the observance of human rights; the prohibition of discrimination; the existence of a Supreme Court; and much more. As mentioned earlier, despite the constitutional importance of these statutes, there is no clear formal way to distinguish them from more routine laws dealing with policy areas such as education and transport.
Conventions: Conventions are understandings about how the constitution works. They can be hard to define precisely and in a broadly consensual way; and they lack strict legal force. But conventions are the source of some of the most important features of the UK system of government. For example, that the prime minister should be a member of the House of Commons capable of commanding the confidence of that institution is just one convention. Traditionally, conventions were not written down in official documents. But, in recent decades, their details have begun to be included in texts published by bodies such as the U.K. government. These include the Cabinet Manual and the Ministerial Code.
Common law: The U.K. has what is known as a 'common law' system, which means that judges declare the law as derived from custom and precedent. Although it is the role of the courts to interpret rules, not make them; in practice, judges can make the law by identifying what the law is. By doing so, they have established important features of the U.K. constitution, such as individual rights and the idea that public authorities are subject to limits and do not have arbitrary power.
Official functions: In the U.K. system, as we have seen, the constitution is spread across many documents and sources, which can make it particularly difficult to understand. Given this, the interpretations of experts trying to understand the system can be particularly important and influential. Indeed, they can be so influential on perceptions of the system that they become part of it. For example, the ideas of Albert Venn Dicey, a late nineteenth/early twentieth century legal scholar, provide the basis for the widely accepted theory known as 'parliamentary sovereignty'. Walter Bagehot, a political journalist writing in the nineteenth century, helped shape the concept and operation of constitutional monarchy. Although these works have become less well known since the twentieth century, they remain important today, shaping the views of even those who do not know their source.
What major reforms have been made to the UK constitution over time?
Although they do not provide a comprehensive picture, we can get an idea of the changing UK constitution through several major Acts of Parliament.