Nature and sources of the constitution

Question 1

What year was the magna carta?

Answer 1

1215

Question 2

What year was the bill of rights?

Answer 2

1689

Question 3

What year was the act of settlement?

Answer 3

1701

Question 4

What year were the acts of union?

Answer 4

1707

Question 5

When were the parliament acts?

Answer 5

1911 and 1949

Question 6

What year was the european communities act?

Answer 6

1972

Question 7

When was the European (notification of withdrawal) act?

Answer 7

2017

Question 8

What has survived from the magna carta?

Answer 8

A few common law traditions and principles that were turned into statutes

Question 9

Define common law

Answer 9

Judge made law from where the existing legal framework does not cover their existing case

Question 10

What did the magna carta do?

Answer 10

• Established the rule of law and the idea that the monarch must act within this framework

Question 11

Define rule of law

Answer 11

The idea that all people and bodies must act within the law and can be held to account if they do not

Question 12

What did the bill of rights do?

Answer 12

Established the idea that parliament is sovereign and will have the final say on finances and legislation

Question 13

Why did parliament feel that the bill of rights was necessary?

Answer 13

They thought that Mary and William would exceed their powers upon ascending to the throne

Question 14

What did the act of settlement do?

Answer 14

• Established legal rules over succession to the throne
• Stated that the monarch should be a CoE member
• Established the monarchs position as the ruler of the whole UK of Britain and Ireland

Question 15

What did the acts of union do?

Answer 15

They abolished the separate Scottish parliament, establishing what we now know as modern Britian

Question 16

What did the 1911 parliament act do?

Answer 16

• Stripped the lords of their ability to regulate public finances
• The lords could now only delay legislation for a maximum of two years, rather than veto it indefinitely

Question 17

What did the 1949 parliament act do?

Answer 17

Reduced the period the lords could delay legislation from 2 years to one

Question 18

What did the parliament acts do?

Answer 18

Establish the commons as the senior house, as before 1911 they were theoretically equal

Question 19

What did the european communities act do?

Answer 19

Brought the UK into the EEC, which would later become the EU

Question 20

What did the European (notification of withdrawal) act do?

Answer 20

Gave parliamentary consent to Brexit

Question 21

List the 5 main sources of the constitution?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Define statute law

Answer 22

Law derived from acts of parliament

Question 23

Why are not all acts of parliament constitutional?

Answer 23

Not all acts have a fundamental bearing on the relationship between state and individual or between the institutions of state

Question 24

What is judicial review?

Answer 24

The power of senior judges to review the actions of government and public bodies and declare them unlawful if they have exceeded their authority

Question 25

What does the body of common law do?

Answer 25

Sets a precedent that guides lower courts and future law makers

Question 26

Why is common law precedent weak?

Answer 26

Parliamentary sovereignty makes statute law superior, meaning the government of the day can overturn common law precedents through simple acts of parliament

Question 27

How does the absence of a superior, fundamental law make the judiciary weak?

Answer 27

Because they are unable to declare government actions unconstitutional, only against the law or incompatible with the HRA

Question 28

What can common law also refer to aside from judge made law?

Answer 28

Customs and precedents that are now largely accepted as being legally binding, like the royal prerogative

Question 29

Explain the idea of the royal prerogative?

Answer 29

This is the idea that the crown has discretionary powers that are exercised by government ministers on behalf of the monarchy

Question 30

Define conventions

Answer 30

Established norms of political behaviour; rooted in past experience rather than the law

Question 31

How did the 2011 cabinet office manual become another written source of the UK constitution?

Answer 31

It attempted to bring together all of the conventions into a single written document

Question 32

What gives conventions their authority?

Answer 32

Their usage over a long period of time

Question 33

What convention did Gordon Brown arguably create during his time as PM?

Answer 33

He announced that the UK would not declare war without a parliamentary vote

Question 34

What are authoritative works?

Answer 34

Refers to a handful of long established legal and political texts that have come to be seen as reference points for understanding the UK constitution

Question 35

List three authoritative works

Answer 35

• Erksine May’s a treatise on law, priviledges, proceedings and usage of parliament
• Walter Bagehot’s The English constitution
• A.V Dicey’s an introduction to the study of the law of the constitution

Question 36

What was the UK subject to under the treaty of rome until 2020?

Answer 36

EU law

Question 37

What did EU membership mean for the UK constitutionally speaking?

Answer 37

EU laws, regulations, laws and directives have significant impact over UK governance

Question 38

Why is the UK government still not completely free to do as it wished even now Brexit is complete?

Answer 38

The government still has responsibilities under international law, with supranational treaties still making up a large proportion of the constitution