1.1 The Nature and Sources of the UK Constitution

Question 1

Constitution:

Answer 1

Determines where power is located within a nation state and the rules by which it is governed. It also establishes the extent of the government’s of the authority and the rights of its citizens.

Question 2

Magna Carta:

Answer 2

1. 1215 forced King John to accept the 63 clauses of Magna Carta
2. The barons placed limits on the power of the monarchy, the Crown is not above the law.
3. Contains the principles of habeas corpus, that one cannot be punished without due process of law.

Question 3

Bill of Rights 1689:

Answer 3

1. In 1688, James II, was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution because it was claimed he was trying to establish an absolutist monarchy.
2. Offered the crown to his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. They had to accept the Bill of Rights.
3. Had to have a regular summoning of regular parliaments, free elections, no taxation without the consent of parliament and parliamentary freedom of free speech.

Question 4

Act of Settlement 1701:

Answer 4

1. Confirmed primacy of Parliament over the crown by declaring that Parliament had the authority to determine the succession to the throne.
2. Confirmed judicial independence by stating that a judge can be removed only on the agreement of both houses of Parliament.

Question 5

Act of Union 1707:

Answer 5

1. England, Scotland and Wales shared the same monarch since 1603.
2. United the Parliament of Scotland with that of England and Wales.
3. Created the UK, preserved the independence of Scottish law.

Question 6

Parliament Act 1911:

Answer 6

1. The Lords refused to pass David Lloyd George’s People’s Budget.
2. Liberal prime minister H.H Asquith threatened to ask George V to flood the House of Lords with Liberal peers, if it did not accept limits on its power.
3. They relented and lost its right to veto.
4. Couldn’t amend financial bills and only delay bills by 2 years.

Question 7

1949 Parliament Act:

Answer 7

1. Reduced the right to delay from 2 to 1 year.
2. Established the democratic legitimacy of Parliament, by asserting the primacy of the Commons of the Lords.

Question 8

Unitary State:

Answer 8

Power is centralised and the centralised and the central government possesses absolute authority.

Question 9

Federal:

Answer 9

Power is shared and dispersed

Question 10

Devolution:

Answer 10

The transfer of powers from central government to regional legislatures.

Question 11

Uncodified:

Answer 11

Derives from a variety of sources and does not represent a higher law.

Question 12

Entrenched:

Answer 12

Making it impossible for them to be altered without complicated procedures requiring the agreement of more than legislature.

Question 13

Parliamentary sovereignty:

Answer 13

Supreme legislative body

Question 14

The rule of law:

Answer 14

That the same laws apply equally to every citizen and that the government is subject to the same laws as everyone else.

Question 15

Statute laws:

Answer 15

A parliamentary bill that has been approved by both houses, then given royal assent. No greater authority than statute law.

Question 16

Statute law: Human Rights Act 1998

Answer 16

1. Incorporates the ECHR into British law
2. All public bodies, including the government are expected to act in accordance with the ECHR.
3. Judges should interpret the law in accordance with the principles of the ECHR.

Question 17

Statute law: House of Lords Act 1999

Answer 17

1. Removed all but 92 hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
2. Most peers would now be life peers.

Question 18

Statute law: Equality Act 2010

Answer 18

1. Codified into one parliamentary statute all previous anti-discriminatory legislation, so providing the positive right of equal treatment.

Question 19

Common Law:

Answer 19

Refers to judgements made by judges in important legal cases. Set precedents to be followed in future cases.

Question 20

Common Law: Bushell’s case (1670)

Answer 20

1. Presiding judge instructed the jury to find 2 Quakers guilty of unlawful assembly.
2. The jury refused to do this and so were fined for contempt of court.
3. One juror, Edward Bushell refused to pay the fine.
4. Sir John Vaughan declared in favour of the jury a judge ‘may not lead them by the nose’
5. Independence of a jury.

Question 21

Common Law: R v R 1991

Answer 21

1. A husband could be guilty of raping one’s wife.
2. No legal safeguard against rape in marriage before this.

Question 22

Common Law: Somerset v Stewart 1772

Answer 22

1. A black slave James Somerset, was imprisoned by Charles Stewart for having escaped
2. Lawyers claimed JS had been illegally imprisoned
3. Mansfield said that nothing in English statute law justified slavery, JS could not be enslaved
4. Challenged the legitimacy of slavery long before abolition in 1833

Question 23

Convention:

Answer 23

The accustomed way in which political activity is carried out. Conventions are not legally binding. Their constitutional significance derives from tradition.

Question 24

Convention: A member of the House of Lords cannot be prime minister

Answer 24

1. In 1963, Lord Home recognised that this would be constitutionally unacceptable
2. He resigned his peerage so that he could fight a by-election to enter the House of Commons as Sir Alex Douglas-Home

Question 25

Salisbury Convention:

Answer 25

1. Lords does not oppose a second or third reading of legislation that was in the winning party’s manifesto.
2. Named after Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the fifth Marquess of Salisbury.
3. Dates to 1945-51 when Lord Salisbury, leader of the Conservative party would not use the majority in the Lords to try an wreck them.
4. Labour had received such a strong mandate.

Question 26

Convention: Referendum

Answer 26

1. Developed in recent years
2. Public should be consulted in a referendum to legitimise proposed changes to the constitution.

Question 27

Authoritative works:

Answer 27

Texts of such profound and enduring political significance that they contribute to the constitution of the UK.

Question 28

Authoritative works: The English Constitution

Answer 28

1. 1867 by Walter Bagehot
2. Explains the relationship between the monarchy, the legislature and the executive
3. This work is a core constitutional text.

Question 29

Authoritative works: Gus O’Donnell

Answer 29

1. Written by the cabinet secretary 2010.
2. A complete guide to how a coalition government should be established.

Question 30

Treaty:

Answer 30

A written agreement made between two or more political entities.

Question 31

Treaty: European Communities Act 1972

Answer 31

1. As a result, the UK accepted the Treaty of Accession.
2. This made the UK a signatory to the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
3. UK accepted all existing European Community Law.