Sources of the UK Constitution Flashcards
Statute laws…
Statute laws are Acts of Parliament that have the effect of establishing constitutional principles. They are the highest legal authority in the UK, taking priority over any other sources of the UK Constitution.
One of the distinctive features of the UK’s constitutional arrangements is that a constitutional statute looks no different from any other statute. As Parliament is sovereign and can amend or repeal any statute, all statutes look alike and have the same status. The wording of a constitutional statute does not contain the words ‘This is a Constitutional Statute’. In most other countries a constitutional statute is clearly differentiated from other laws and is superior to them.
Constitutional conventions…
A convention is an unwritten rule that is considered binding on all members of the political community. Such conventions could be challenged in law but have so much moral force that they are rarely, if ever, disputed.
Many of the powers of the PM are governed by such conventions. It is, for example, merely a convention that the PM exercises the King’s power to appoint and dismiss ministers, to conduct foreign policy and to grant various honours, such as peerages and knighthoods, to individuals.
Authoritative works…
Much of the UK Constitution is based on key historical principles that have become effectively binding because they have been established over a long period of time. In order to clarify what these principles are and what they mean, legal scholars and experts over time have written works as guidebooks and explanations of them.
The most important of these constitutional theorists include Blackstone (parliamentary sovereignty) and A.V. Dicey (rule of law), while the rules on how to form a coalition are now an authoritative constitutional work, having been drawn up by the then Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, in 2010.
The most important of the principles outlined in such authoritative works is the sovereignty of Parliament. We could add a similar concept, which is a parliamentary government, the principle that the authority of the government is drawn from Parliament and not directly from the people. The rule of law is a more recent development, originating in the second part of the 19th century. The rule of law establishes, among other things, the principles of equal rights for citizens and that government is itself bound by legal limitations.
Common law…
‘Common law’ is a largely Anglo-Saxon principle, referring to the development of laws through historical usage and tradition. Judges, who occasionally must declare and enforce common law, treat it as any rule of conduct that is both well established and generally acknowledged by most people.
The most important application of common law has concerned the protection of basic rights and freedoms from encroachment by government and/or Parliament. The Crown could not detain citizens without trial.
For the most part, common law principles have been replaced by statutes and by the European Convention on Human Rights, which became UK law in 2000 as the Human Rights Act. But from time to time, when there is no relevant statute, the common law is invoked in courts by citizens with a grievance against government.
Treaties…
The UK Constitution is also comprised of international treaties and agreements that become binding on UK politics. Perhaps the most famous of these is the European Convention on Human Rights, which was signed by the British government in 1956. This meant the British government agreed to be bound by the terms of the European Convention and subject to the European Court of Human Rights. This subjects the British government to international law and agreements that it is compelled to honour, although it was not brought into UK law until the passage of the HRA in 1998.
Most of the relationship between the UK and the EU was defined and developed through the signing of treaties, such as the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the Lisbon Treaty of 2009. In this situation, Parliament allowed some of its sovereignty to be passed to the EU, and in the new treaties negotiated post-Brexit, the relationship between the UK and the EU will be redefined.
In the same way, the UK has agreed to be bound by international agreements relating to climate change (in the Paris Climate Agreement), the UN, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation and NATO.
Examples of Statute law…
> Equal Franchise Act 1928 - established full and equal voting rights for women
> Life Peerages Act 1958 - introduced the appointment of life peers to add to the hereditary peerage
> Human Rights Act 1998 - incorporated the codified European Convention on Human Rights into UK law
Examples of Constitutional conventions…
> The Salisbury Convention - states that the House of Lords should not block any legislation that appeared in the governing party’s most recent election manifesto
> Collective responsibility - means that all members of the government must support official policy in public or resign or face dismissal (occasionally suspended for national debates such as the Brexit referendum)
> Government formation - based on the convention that, following an election, the King must invite the leader of the largest party in the Commons to form a government.
Examples of Authoritative works…
> The sovereignty of Parliament - establishes the supremacy of Parliament in legislation
> The rule of law - states that all, including government itself, are equal under the law
> Constitutional monarchy - a principle that the monarch is limited in their role and can play no active role in politics
> ‘O’Donnell Rules’ of 2010 - establish how a coalition government may be formed
Examples of Common law…
Most common law concerns the rights and principles of justice. These have mostly been replaced by the European Convention on Human Rights. However, some of Parliament’s powers and procedures are contained in common law.
The prerogative powers of the PM, exercised on behalf of the monarch, are essentially common law powers, which have never been codified.
Examples of Treaties…
> Treaty of Lisbon, 2007 - granted further powers and agreed to an effective EU constitution, including a process for leaving the EU, contained in Article 50
> Paris Climate Change Accords, 2015 - saw the UK commit itself to an obligation to cut carbon emissions
