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UK Government Constitution
UK Government Constitution
UK Government Constitution
UK Government Constitution
Nature of a constitution
Consider how far the UK constitution is changing from its uncodified nature
through UK’s involvement in EU, impact on parliamentary sovereignty from
above (EU), below (devolution and referendums) and also within (executive
dominance), and also greater separation of powers in terms of the judicial
branch (CRA 205)
Key sources
Authoritative Texts – established long term academic work providing basis for
conduct of Parliament – see Bagehot on English Constitution and Erskine
May’s ‘Parliamentary Bible’. Similar to conventions lacking any legal recourse
and including outdated procedures (note voting procedure in Parliament).
Rule of Law – all must abide by the law and equal in eyes of the law (note
Blair and allegations of Cash for Honours), law interpretation job of judiciary
and not executive and also incarceration only for breach of a specific law.
How does this comply with how justice applies in practice and also recent
legislation relating to 28 day detention for suspected terrorists?
Uncodified (along with Israel and New Zealand) but not fully accurate to
unwritten (note questions will) and unentrenched due to the nature of
parliamentary sovereignty (note practical embedding of aspects of devolution
after devolution through use of referendums, also applies to EU membership
after 1975 referendum – note also other pledges on referendums e.g. EU
Constitution Euro and Electoral reform).
Arguments against
Constitutional Reform
1998 Human Rights Act – incorporated most articles of ECHR into UK Law
but allows for executive derogation (e.g. Article 5 and 28 and 42 Day
detention) and only declaration of incompatibility and not strike down. Note
Tory criticisms of Claimants Charter and over protection for criminals (e.g.
Afghanistan Hijackers). However has speeded up justice instead of taking
case to Strasburg European Court (NOT EU)