Sources of the UK Constitution

Question 1

Briefly describe the development of the UK Constitution

Answer 1

• since its development has been evolutionary, the UK does not possess a codified constitution
• the British constitution has gradually developed over 800 years since Magna Carta
• Sir Robin Butler, Cabinet Secretary (1988-98), even joked that the British constitution is ‘something we make up as we go along’
• the UK, therefore, has an uncodified constitution deriving from a variety of sources
• there are multiple sources of the UK constitution

Question 2

a) Describe statute law

Answer 2

• momentous Acts of Parliament contribute to the UK’s uncodified constitution
• e.g. the Parliament Act 1911, which removed the House of Lords’ right of veto, established the principle that Parliament should reflect the democratic will of the public expressed through the House of Commons
• another parliamentary statute of enduring importance is the Representation of the People Act 1928, by which the UK adopted universal suffrage
• Since the election of the Blair government in 1997, a number of reforming Acts of Parliament have led to the further development of the British

Question 3

b) Describe statute law

Answer 3

reforming Acts of Parliament:

• Human Rights Act 1998: the Human Rights Act incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into British law; as a result, public bodies, including the government, are expected to act in accordance with the ECHR & judges should interpret the law according to the principles of the ECHR
• Equality Act 2010: the Equality Act codifies into one parliamentary statute all previous anti-discriminatory legislation, so providing the positive right of equal treatment

Question 4

What is statute law?

Answer 4

• a parliamentary bill that has been approved by both houses of Parliament & then given royal assent
• in the UK, there is no authority greater than statute law

Question 5

a) Describe common law

Answer 5

• how the judiciary interprets the meaning of the law contributes to the development of case law
• this is especially important on occasions when statute law is lacking or unclear
• the precedents set in such cases are so far-reaching that they can be said to contribute to the constitution as common law

Question 6

b) Describe common law

Answer 6

landmark common law cases…

• Bushell’s case (1670): the presiding judge instructed the jury to find two Quakers guilty of unlawful assembly; the jury refused to do this & so were fined for contempt of court. One juror, Edward Bushell, refused to pay the fine & in the resulting case Sir John Vaughan declared in favour of the jury, stating that a judge ‘may try to open the eyes of the jurors, but not to lead them by the nose’; Bushell’s case represents a landmark case protecting the independence of a jury
• Somerset v Stewart (1772): when a black slave, James Somerset, was imprisoned by Charles Stewart for having escaped, lawyers acting for Somerset claimed he had been illegally imprisoned. In his judgement, Lord Mansfield stated that nothing in English statute law justified slavery & so Somerset could not be enslaved: ‘It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law.’ The case is momentous because it challenged the legitimacy of slavery in common law long before these points direct the law; the law must rule us.’; this set an important precedent that the courts must always dispense justice whatever the consequences

Question 7

What is common law?

Answer 7

• refers to judgments made by judges in important legal cases
• sometimes referred to as ‘judge-made law’
• common law cases set precedents to be followed in future cases

Question 8

What are conventions?

Answer 8

• represents the accustomed way in which political activity is carried out
• conventions are not legally binding
• their constitutional significance derives from tradition