1.1 The nature and sources of the UK Constitution

Question 1

five main sources of uk constitution?

Answer 1

• statute law
• common law
• conventions
• authoritative works
• treaties.

Question 2

statute law

Answer 2

made by parl
- not all important but there are ones that affect the powers & responsiblities of gov or rigthts & freedoms of citizens
- single most important source of the constituiton
- parliamentary sovereignty implies that statutes outrank all other sources of the con. if a statute conflicts w a convention & a common law, the statute will always prevail.
- even more constitutional rules have increasingly come to have a legal basis, both as new constitutional statutes have been enacted and sometimes as conventions and common laws are turned into statutues.
- eg, scotland act and human rights act

Question 3

common law

Answer 3

a body of law created by judicial ruling established over time
- this has occured tgrough the use of precedent, where judgements in earlier, similar cases are recorded and are taken to be binding on later cases.
- while statute law is made by politicians, common law is sometimes seen as ‘judge made’ law
- common law exists where there is no statute law