Nature and sources of British constitution:
Development -
● Has been developed for centuries and continues to develop to this day
● Power used to be centralised in the hands of the monarch
● Main themes of constitutional development have been the transferal of power from the
monarch to parliament and the increase in the rights of citizens
● Constitution generally thought to have begun with Magna Carta 1215
● Magna carta agreement between King John and his barons to prevent the abuse of royal
power
● Magna carta sets out the principle that no one including the king is above the law and
sets out the right to a fair trial for all free men
● Bill of Rights = put into law when William III and Mary II took the throne 1689
● Bill of Rights established the idea that the monarch’s power is reliant on the consent of
parliament and set up frequent parliaments, freedom of speech within parliament and
free elections
● Act of Settlement 1701 = stated only a Protestant could become monarch and gave
control over the line of succession to the throne to parliament, shortly followed by first
Acts of Union - acts that established the union of Scotland 1707 and Ireland 1801 with
England to form GB
● Basis of UK until the devolution reforms 1997
● Budget crisis created 1909 when Lord rejected Lloyd-George’s People’s Budget which
had a substantial tax increase
● In response the 1911 Parliament Act prevented Lords from delaying money bills and
prevented them delaying other bills for more than 2 years
● 1949 parliament act reduced period for which the HOL could delay a bill to 1 year
● European Communities Act 1972 was the piece of legislation that entered Britain into the
EEC which would later become the EU, gave EEC/EU law precedence over UK law in
the case of a conflict , Brexit process involves repealing this act
Nature of constitution -
● Unitary = UK constitution is unitary meaning all power is centralised in the Parliament in
Westminster, this principle has been diluted in recent years due to devolution and many
scholars would now refer to the UK as a union state
● Rule of law = idea everyone is subject to the law and held accountable to it, this means
everyone is entitled to a fair trial and that all citizens including public officials are equal
under the law and must obey it, for this to work the judiciary also must be independent of
political interference
● Uncodified = not written down in one document and is made up of multiple sources
● Unentrenched = easily changed by a simple act of parliament or shift in convention
● Parliamentary sovereignty = idea parliament is supreme and ultimate authority sits with it
as representative of the people, no parliament can bind its successor - parliament can
repeal any act passed by previous parliament, parliament also the supreme legislative
body and legislation can’t be changed struck down or ignored by the judiciary or the
executive
,Sources of constitution -
● Statute law - all legislation created by parliament, not all laws are considered
constitutional only those that deal with nature of politics and government or the rights of
citizens, most important source of constitution due to the principle of parliamentary
sovereignty all sources can be overridden by statute law e.g 2005 constitutional reform
act created by supreme court / 1918 representation of people act which allowed all men
and some women to vote
● Common law = made up of customs and judicial precedent when judicial decisions
clarify the meaning of statute or make railings in absence of statute, a lot of constitutional
principles such as Royal Prerogative are a part of common law
● Conventions = customs and practices that are accepted as the way of doing things, e.g
PM leader of largest party in parliament, conventions can be removed or made
permanent by statute law, 2011 fixed term parliament act put into statute law convention
that the government should resign if it is defeated in a vote of no confidence
● Authoritative works = “English constitution - Walter Bagehot” are books or written guides
to the working of the UK constitution, widely respected but not legally binding
● Treaties = agreements signed with other countries, most important treaties affecting UK
constitution are the treaty that entered Britain into the EEC 1972 and Maastricht Treaty
1992 which established EU, UK government is currently negotiating a new treaty that will
allow the UK to leave EU
Rights in the UK -
● Magna Carta 1215; restrictions imposed on the monarchy to stop the monarch from
abusing power
● Bill of Rights 1689; introduced more limits on the power of the monarchy and rights of
parliament such as free elections and parliamentary free speech
● ECHR 1953; signing this meant all UK government actions needed to be in compliance
with the ECHR, includes articles such as right to life / freedom from torture
● European court of justice 1973; after UK joined EEC the ECJ protected the rights of UK
workers
● Data protection act 1984; protected personal information that public organisations held
people’s personal information which public organisations held
● HRA 1998, meant ECHR became codified into British law
● Freedom of Information Act = allowed UK citizens to access some information held by
UK public institutions, some information relating to national security cannot be accessed
● Equality act 2010 = brought together all anti-discriminatory measures into a single
document, protects workers and the general public from discrimination, acts incldues
different types of discrimination including age / disabiltiy
● Number of cases HRA served to defend rights of individuals in UK - after Hillsborough
disaster families of victims used the HRA to force an in-depth inquiry into the deaths
● HRA = rights enshrined in clear way in statute, must be complied with by legislation,
meant citizens can ensure the protection of their rights through courts in UK, not
entrenched so replaceable and does not offer sufficient protection of rights and liberties,
, Conservatives planned to replace with British Bill of Rights, limited in protection as it
cannot overturn legislation made in parliament, government can set aside
Individual and collective rights -
● All laws passed must comply with HRA which has led to some arguing that the UK has a
rights based culture
● Judges can use HRA to declare existing laws unfit which promotes human rights in
society and lawmaking
● HRA protects individuals than UK citizenship collectively
● Protecting individual rights is seen as a good thing because it enables a free and fair
society, and protects individuals who may face oppression
● Individual rights are protected at the expense of collective rights there can be restrictions
on actions that can be taken to protect the public
● Some criminals in the UK have not extradited because of HRA
● Some may consider this a threat to collective rights of liberty and security; after 9/11 the
government wished to detain terror suspects wihtout trial but this was ruled against by
the Law Lords becuase it was seen as discrimination
Constitutional changes since 1997:
Changing composition of HOL -
● Demand for reform came from a broad range of groups who wanted to modernise British
institutions and a growing distrust in traditional institutions
● Growing demands for devolution to Scotland and to fix the problems in NI
● When New Labour came to power 1997 under leadership of Blair they promised wide
ranging constitutional reforms
● Still debate whether these reforms went far enough
● HOL Act 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers, lords became a mainly appointed
chamber with peers appointed based on merit as opposed to by birth with the removal of
most hereditary peers
● No one party has majority, removal of majority hereditary peers modernised HOL and
made it more legitimate and professional body
Devolution -
● 1998 Scotland Act, NI Act and Government of Wales Act established Scottish parliament
and Welsh / NI Assembly
● Growing demand for Scottish independence and a need to unite unionist and nationalist
parties in NI
● Good Friday agreement and devolution to NI assembly transformed the situation in NI
● Until the collapse of power-sharing agreement 2017 the 2 main parties had been
working together
● Although they are calls for more devolution to England when a referendum was held on
the idea of an elected regional assembly for the north east of England the idea was
rejected
Development -
● Has been developed for centuries and continues to develop to this day
● Power used to be centralised in the hands of the monarch
● Main themes of constitutional development have been the transferal of power from the
monarch to parliament and the increase in the rights of citizens
● Constitution generally thought to have begun with Magna Carta 1215
● Magna carta agreement between King John and his barons to prevent the abuse of royal
power
● Magna carta sets out the principle that no one including the king is above the law and
sets out the right to a fair trial for all free men
● Bill of Rights = put into law when William III and Mary II took the throne 1689
● Bill of Rights established the idea that the monarch’s power is reliant on the consent of
parliament and set up frequent parliaments, freedom of speech within parliament and
free elections
● Act of Settlement 1701 = stated only a Protestant could become monarch and gave
control over the line of succession to the throne to parliament, shortly followed by first
Acts of Union - acts that established the union of Scotland 1707 and Ireland 1801 with
England to form GB
● Basis of UK until the devolution reforms 1997
● Budget crisis created 1909 when Lord rejected Lloyd-George’s People’s Budget which
had a substantial tax increase
● In response the 1911 Parliament Act prevented Lords from delaying money bills and
prevented them delaying other bills for more than 2 years
● 1949 parliament act reduced period for which the HOL could delay a bill to 1 year
● European Communities Act 1972 was the piece of legislation that entered Britain into the
EEC which would later become the EU, gave EEC/EU law precedence over UK law in
the case of a conflict , Brexit process involves repealing this act
Nature of constitution -
● Unitary = UK constitution is unitary meaning all power is centralised in the Parliament in
Westminster, this principle has been diluted in recent years due to devolution and many
scholars would now refer to the UK as a union state
● Rule of law = idea everyone is subject to the law and held accountable to it, this means
everyone is entitled to a fair trial and that all citizens including public officials are equal
under the law and must obey it, for this to work the judiciary also must be independent of
political interference
● Uncodified = not written down in one document and is made up of multiple sources
● Unentrenched = easily changed by a simple act of parliament or shift in convention
● Parliamentary sovereignty = idea parliament is supreme and ultimate authority sits with it
as representative of the people, no parliament can bind its successor - parliament can
repeal any act passed by previous parliament, parliament also the supreme legislative
body and legislation can’t be changed struck down or ignored by the judiciary or the
executive
,Sources of constitution -
● Statute law - all legislation created by parliament, not all laws are considered
constitutional only those that deal with nature of politics and government or the rights of
citizens, most important source of constitution due to the principle of parliamentary
sovereignty all sources can be overridden by statute law e.g 2005 constitutional reform
act created by supreme court / 1918 representation of people act which allowed all men
and some women to vote
● Common law = made up of customs and judicial precedent when judicial decisions
clarify the meaning of statute or make railings in absence of statute, a lot of constitutional
principles such as Royal Prerogative are a part of common law
● Conventions = customs and practices that are accepted as the way of doing things, e.g
PM leader of largest party in parliament, conventions can be removed or made
permanent by statute law, 2011 fixed term parliament act put into statute law convention
that the government should resign if it is defeated in a vote of no confidence
● Authoritative works = “English constitution - Walter Bagehot” are books or written guides
to the working of the UK constitution, widely respected but not legally binding
● Treaties = agreements signed with other countries, most important treaties affecting UK
constitution are the treaty that entered Britain into the EEC 1972 and Maastricht Treaty
1992 which established EU, UK government is currently negotiating a new treaty that will
allow the UK to leave EU
Rights in the UK -
● Magna Carta 1215; restrictions imposed on the monarchy to stop the monarch from
abusing power
● Bill of Rights 1689; introduced more limits on the power of the monarchy and rights of
parliament such as free elections and parliamentary free speech
● ECHR 1953; signing this meant all UK government actions needed to be in compliance
with the ECHR, includes articles such as right to life / freedom from torture
● European court of justice 1973; after UK joined EEC the ECJ protected the rights of UK
workers
● Data protection act 1984; protected personal information that public organisations held
people’s personal information which public organisations held
● HRA 1998, meant ECHR became codified into British law
● Freedom of Information Act = allowed UK citizens to access some information held by
UK public institutions, some information relating to national security cannot be accessed
● Equality act 2010 = brought together all anti-discriminatory measures into a single
document, protects workers and the general public from discrimination, acts incldues
different types of discrimination including age / disabiltiy
● Number of cases HRA served to defend rights of individuals in UK - after Hillsborough
disaster families of victims used the HRA to force an in-depth inquiry into the deaths
● HRA = rights enshrined in clear way in statute, must be complied with by legislation,
meant citizens can ensure the protection of their rights through courts in UK, not
entrenched so replaceable and does not offer sufficient protection of rights and liberties,
, Conservatives planned to replace with British Bill of Rights, limited in protection as it
cannot overturn legislation made in parliament, government can set aside
Individual and collective rights -
● All laws passed must comply with HRA which has led to some arguing that the UK has a
rights based culture
● Judges can use HRA to declare existing laws unfit which promotes human rights in
society and lawmaking
● HRA protects individuals than UK citizenship collectively
● Protecting individual rights is seen as a good thing because it enables a free and fair
society, and protects individuals who may face oppression
● Individual rights are protected at the expense of collective rights there can be restrictions
on actions that can be taken to protect the public
● Some criminals in the UK have not extradited because of HRA
● Some may consider this a threat to collective rights of liberty and security; after 9/11 the
government wished to detain terror suspects wihtout trial but this was ruled against by
the Law Lords becuase it was seen as discrimination
Constitutional changes since 1997:
Changing composition of HOL -
● Demand for reform came from a broad range of groups who wanted to modernise British
institutions and a growing distrust in traditional institutions
● Growing demands for devolution to Scotland and to fix the problems in NI
● When New Labour came to power 1997 under leadership of Blair they promised wide
ranging constitutional reforms
● Still debate whether these reforms went far enough
● HOL Act 1999 removed all but 92 hereditary peers, lords became a mainly appointed
chamber with peers appointed based on merit as opposed to by birth with the removal of
most hereditary peers
● No one party has majority, removal of majority hereditary peers modernised HOL and
made it more legitimate and professional body
Devolution -
● 1998 Scotland Act, NI Act and Government of Wales Act established Scottish parliament
and Welsh / NI Assembly
● Growing demand for Scottish independence and a need to unite unionist and nationalist
parties in NI
● Good Friday agreement and devolution to NI assembly transformed the situation in NI
● Until the collapse of power-sharing agreement 2017 the 2 main parties had been
working together
● Although they are calls for more devolution to England when a referendum was held on
the idea of an elected regional assembly for the north east of England the idea was
rejected
