Nature and sources of UK constitution

Question 1

What is the UK Constitution classified as and why?

Answer 1

Classified as Unwritten because it is not in a single or series of documents.

Question 2

What are the several sources of the UK Constitution

Answer 2

Statutes
Judicial decisions
Constitutional conventions

Question 3

What are statutes

Answer 3

Acts of parliament that sets out the powers of the state, or providing protection of citizens.

Question 4

In the Magna Carta, what year is it and what clauses are still on statute

Answer 4

1297
Clause 1 - freedom of the English Church
Clause 9 - the ‘ancient liberties’ of the City of London
and Clause 39 (other question)

Question 5

Clause 39 in the Magna Carta is important, what does it say?

Answer 5

no free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, or exiled, or in any way destroyed nor shall we go against him or send against him, unless by legal judgment of his peers, or by the laws of the land

Question 6

What is the year of the Bill of Rights

Answer 6

1689

Question 7

What does the Bill of Rights establish and what does it do

Answer 7

Established Parliament (rather than the monarch) as the supreme law-making body in England and it restricted the power of the monarch and set basic individual rights

Question 8

What articles in the Bill of Rights is important

Answer 8

Article 1 - power of suspending… or executing laws by the Crown without parliamentary consent is illegal
Article 4 - the levying of money for use of the Crown under a prerogative without parliamentary consent is illegal
Article 8 - election of the Members of Palriament ought to be free
Article 9 - freedome of speech and debated in proceedings in parliament out not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of parliament

Question 9

What year is the Treaty of Union

Answer 9

1706

Question 10

What does the Treaty of Union state?

Answer 10

It unites England and Scotland under a SINGLE parliament of Great Britain.

Question 11

what article in the Treaty of union is important

Answer 11

Article 1 - the two kingdoms of England and Scotland shall be united in one kingdom by the name of Great Britain
Article 3 - there should be a single parliament

Question 12

What do the European treaties do

Answer 12

regulates the UK’s membership of the European Union.

Question 13

What is the European Communities Act 1972

Answer 13

Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which legislated for the joining of the United Kingdom to the three European Communities.

Question 14

what happens when the UK joins the European Community/Union?

Answer 14

UK has undertaken the obligation to accept the law of the Union thus, EU law represetns significant source of constitutional law.

Question 15

Under what doctrine does the Westminister parliament have sovereign legislative power

Answer 15

the ‘traditional’ doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty

Question 16

as a result of the UK membership of the EU, what has been ruled and who ruled it?

Answer 16

The european economic community constitutes a NEW LEGAL ORDER of international law for the benefit of which the states have LIMITED THEIR SOVEREIGN RIGHTS. European Court ruled this

Question 17

What are the examples of statutes sources of the UK’s Constitution

Answer 17

Magna Carta 1215
Bill of Rights 1689
The Treaty of Union 1706
Human Rights Act 1998
Constitutional Reforms Act 2005
The European Communities Act 1972

Question 18

What does the Human Rights Act 1998 contain

Answer 18

incorporated rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law

Question 19

What does the Consitutional Reform Act 2005 contain

Answer 19

it modified the role of Lord Chancellor and established the Supreme court

Question 20

What happened in Entick v Carrington

Answer 20

Entick was supspected of treason. Kings messengers broke into his house to seize him and his papers on order by government minster

Question 21

what did the court rule in Entick v Carrington

Answer 21

The state had to act within legal authority. In the absence of any common law or statutory authority, a government minister did not have any power to ussue warrants permitting entry and search of private premises

Question 22

what waas the decision made by court in ther terrorism order 2006

Answer 22

By introductin reasonable suspicion test as a mean of giving effect to the relevant security council resolution, the treasure had exceeded its powers under s1.1 of the united nations act 1946.
Fundamental rights could not be overridden by general or ambiguous words (HM treasure v Ahmed)

Question 23

What are the two judicial decisions that classify as a UK constitution source

Answer 23

Entick v Carrington

Terrorism (United Nation Measures) Order 2006

Question 24

what are constitutional conventions and why are they necessary

Answer 24

they are customs or historical practices

and they are necessary because they make the legal constitution work. Flesh which clothes the dry bones of the law.

Question 25

conventions are defined by who and as what?

Answer 25

AV DICEY
understandings, habits or practices which, though they may regulate the conduct of several memebers of the sovereign power, in realtiy are not laws at all, since they are not enforeceable by courts (althought politically enforceable)

Question 26

Examples of consitutional conventions

Answer 26

The queen will appoint PN the leader of the political party with the majority of seats in the House of Commons
PM must be a member of the House of Commons
Government must maintain the confidence of the House of Commons, if confidence is lost the government must resign
Parliament must be summoned to meet at least once a year

Question 27

Are conventions laws?

Answer 27

No, they are not enforeced by the courts.
E.g the PM must resign if, after a general election, another party has won a majority in the House of commons
BUT there is no law which says that a PM must resign
However, if they break this convention they could be said to have acted unconstitutionally

Question 28

How does a constitutional convention exist

Answer 28

There are precedents underpinning it
The Parties to the relevant practice consider themselves to be bound by it, and
There is a reason for the existence of the convention

Question 29

What is the example of judicial recognition of conventions?

Answer 29

R v secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs

applicant had not put before the court any material capable of substantiating the claim that there was a convention that no act of palriament could be passed whihc altered our constitution in a fundamental way without prior electoral approval and that tht convention had the force of law…. It was not, therefore, arguable that there was any constitutional conventionof the breadth suggested.