The Constitution Flashcards
Why has the UK constitution developed differently from the constitution of most other nation states
Since Norman conquest 1066 there has not been a historical event that has altered the principles on which we are governed so British constitution has gradually developed over 800 years since the Magna Carta
What does the term constitution mean
determines why a power is located in a nation state and the rules by which it is governed
Name 2 very different constitutions to UK
UKs evolution has evolved without any breaks unlike France and USA where revolutions led to overthrows of the government and the establishment of codified constitution which set out the principles the government would operate
Explain each step to describe how power in Britain has gradually moved away from the crown to Parliament and to democratically elected House of Commons
1 Magna Carta Acts 1215
Forcing King John to accept the 63 clauses of the MC barons placed limits in the power of the monarchy and established crown is not above the law
2 The Bill of Rights 1689
Last Stuart King James 11 was overthrown in a revolution because he was trying to establish an absolute monarchy/ Parliament offered the crown to his daughter Mary and husband William of Orange they had to accept the bill of rights which gave legal force to some rights including summoning of regular parliament, free elections, no taxation without Parliament consent and Parliamentary freedom of speech
3 Act of Settlement 1701
This confirmed idea of parliament over crown by declaring that Parliament had the right to determine the succession of the throne and stated a judge can be removed if agree by both houses, establishing judicial independence
4 Act of Union
England, Scotland and Wales had shared the same monarch since 1603 this act united the parliament of Scotland England and Wales creating the UK although independence of Scottish law was preserved
5 Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949
As a result of the lords refusing to pass the Peoples Budget the Liberal PM threatened to asked King George to flood parliament with liberal Peers if it did not accept limit on its powers. The lords relented and in 1911 Act lost its rights of veto and so would not be able to ament=d financial bills such as the budget and could only delay other bills for 2 years. 1949 Act reduced their rights to delay to 1 year. These acts established the democratic legitimacy of parliament by establishing commons over lords
6 European Communities Act 1972
As a result of this act Ik joined the European Ecconomic Community later it was established where cases overlapped European law would take precedence over UK law
7 Devolution 1997
As a result of referendums Scotland and Wales established their own governments and legislations.
8 Brexit 2016
As a result of a referendum in which the public voted in favour of leaving EU parliament enacted EU Act 2020
Britain has a constitutional monarch, what does this mean
holds limited power according to the rule of law
What does the term unitary mean
in a unitary state power is centralized and central government possesses absolute authority - UK parliament is the supreme law making body so UK is a unitary state
Explain the term federal
In a feeder Al state power is shared. Power of central government is limited by the sovereign power of lower levels of government over which it has no power - USA certain states have powers which the central government cannot override
Explain term devolution
transfer of power from central government to regional legislators - these powers are said to be devolved rather than given away
Explain unmodified and codified
a codified constitution is when the constitution is contained in one single document it is entrenched and superior to all other laws. An uncodified constitution comes from a variety of sources and does not represent a higher law
Explain the terms entrenched and unentrenched
codified constitutions entrench constitutional rules making it impossible for them to be altered without a complicated procedure requiring the agreement of more than just 1 legislator. When a constitution is unentrenched the way in which the state is governed and the rights of the citizen can be changed simply by and Act of Parliament
Explain Parliamentary Sovereignty
Parliament is the supreme legislative body, it can enact any legislation for which it has a parliamentary majority as there is authority greater that can veto it.
Explain the rule of law
principle that the same laws apply equally to all citizens including government
When recently was UK as a unitary state challenged
through devolution
The UK is an uncodified constitution made up from many sources
1 Statute Law - Acts of parliament eg 1911 Act which removed Lord s right to veto.Peoples
Act 1928 uk adopted universal sufferage
2 Common Law - how the judiciary interprets meaning of law contributes to development of case law, important when statute law is unclear eg 1991 RvR established principle in common law a husband could be found guilty of raping his wife
3 Conventions - not recognized in statute law but are constitutional procedure eg there is no legal requirement that a member of the Lords can not be PM but Lord Home recognized that it was unconstitutionally unacceptable so resigned his peerage to fight and election, Ministerial code of conduct explains the roles of government ministers including circumstances where they would be expected to resign - rules that are not legally binding
4 Landmark Decsions - come historical events have contributed to the constitution eg Magna Carta has influenced rule of law, petition of rights presented to Charles 1 by parliament set out core rights include in freedom from prison without trail,
5 Authoritative Works - texts of such political significance they contribute to UK constitution eg The English Consitution by Bagehot explains the relationship between monarchy, legislator and executive and May a clerk to House of Commons published Parliamentary Practise which explains in great detail how parliament is operated
6 Treaties - written agreement between 2 or more political bodies eg Maastricht treaty 1993 Lisbon Treaty 2009 further changed UK law
Give an example of a recent piece of work that has become part of the constitution showing it continues to evolve
Gus O’Donnell produced a guide on how the coalition government should be established
At the beginning of the 20th century Asquith government greatly changed the constitution by establishing House of Commons over Lords what was the next big reform how was he able to do it
1997 Blair government had a majority of 179 seats and faced a weak opposition that had just suffered a big general election defeat
New Labour want to shake up democracy and reengage the public in politics through modernization and reform
They believed power was to centralized and rights of citizen were not protected
What were the 4 themes of Blairs reform programme
1 decentralization - power was focused at Westminster and it should be devolved back to the people. Scotland and Wales would be offered their own elected governments and cities and towns given opportunity to elect own mayors
2 democratization - the public should be given more influence over decision making through more use of referendums on important constitutional issues - the House of Lords would be reformed to encourage greater democracy
3 transparency - to encourage greater trust in government and roll of senior judiciary would be reformed Freedom of Information Act would make government more accountable to public
4 Rights Protection - British citizens rights were not protected by codified constitution government committed to incorporations the European Convention of Human. Rights into British Law
What would Blairs 1997 government reform on devolution mean for Scotland and wales
provide greater power to govern themselves
What were the outcomes of the 1997 referendums in Scotland and Wales over whether they wished to have own elected governments
Scotland voted a large majority in favour of having its own parliament
Wales voted in favour of having its own assesmbly by a tiny margin
What big devolution event happened in 1998
Good Friday agreement signed part of which Northern Ireland voted in a referendum in favour of power sharing between unionists and republicans in a devolved assembly
What were the aims of these reforms
Establishing new legislatures and executives in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast would enable the politics to be more suited to the needs of the people in Scotland Wales and NI
It also recognized that from 1979-1997 Scotland and Wales had been governed from Westminster by Conservative governments when they hade consistently voted Labour
In Northern Ireland it was an important part of the peace process
Has devolution been successful
Since the establishment of the governments and legislatures in Scotland and Wales they have acquired significant new powers suggesting it has been successful In NI the difficulty of power sharing has undermined the process
What reforms were introduce in Britain
1 many towns and cities wer allowed to elect their own mayors to make local government more accountable to the public
1998 London voted in referendum in favour of great London Authority made up of an elected mayor and a London assembly who could veto Lord Mayors proposals
Other authorities were offered elected mayors
Why were reforms introduced in the House of Lords in 1999
The majority of the 1330 peers who could attend the lords the majority were hereditary peers (entitled to a place because of their family). They out numbered life peers who were appointed because of their service to the nation
The hereditary principle undermines the legitimacy of the House of Lords
What reforms did Blair introduce
remove the right of hereditary peers. To persuade the lords to accept the reform government allowed the hereditary peers to elect 92 of their number to continue to sit in the Lords and when a hereditary Lord resigns or dies another lord is elected
This is the only democratic element of the lords
What was the governments intention was it successful
Intention was to make the lords a more professional body by ensuring membership was based on merit and acomplishment rather than birth. The reform has effected its membership not its power.
Why have the reforms been seen as controversial
no elected element has been introduced in the lords so although it has greater expertise it still lacks democratic legitamacy
Feeling that lords has become to large
What did Keri stammer propose in 2022
abolish House of Lords and replace with elected assembly of nations and regions
What made Tony Blair less enthusiastic about electoral reform
His majority at the 1997 General Election
What was Roy Jenkins tasked to do
investigate an alternative to first past the post
What did Blairs government do with his report
ignored his report recommending an alternative vote to FPTP
They did however adopt a new electoral system for new devolved assemblies and elected mayors to encourage voter choice and ensure fairer balance of influence
Scottish parliament and welsh assembly would be elected by an additional member system and Northern Ireland by single transferable vote and supplementary vote
Human Rights Act was enacted in 1998 by Blair government why is it important
First time the rights if British Citizens have positively been stated
The Act provides the judiciary important new powers to protect and advance our civil liberties
What does HOLAC stand for
House of Lords appointments commission - nominates a group of life peer cross benchers and scrutinizes appointments made by monarch on recommendation of PM
List 3 important cases involving human rights act
1 Laporte case article 8 of HRA - right to private life and article 10 - the right to freedom of expression were used to show police had illegally acted when they stopped 120 anti Iraq war protestors from reaching RAF Fairford in 2003
2 In HJ and HT v Home office HRA used to argue that the home office had been wrong to deny asylum of 2 gay people trying to escape persecution in their own country . Their defence was that they could not have hidden their sexuality because to ask a homosexual person to pretend his sexuality doesn’t exist denies his right to be who he is
3 1n 2012 US government demanded extradition of Gary McKinnon on accusation he had hacked NASA and Pentagon as he searched for information on UFOs. Because McKinnon had Asperger’s the Home Secretary Theresa May refused the application and imprisonment in the USA as an infringement of article 3 which protects humans from inhuman and degrading treatment
How has incorporating ECof HR into British Law also led to Bette protection of our civil liberties
1 public bodies eg government are now expected to act in accordance with HRA
2 when parliament legislates it should do so in accordance to principles of HRA
Why is the HRA not entirely powerful
It is an act of parliament who have the right to repeal the act and can enact legislation even if it conflicts HRA
Article 15 also gives government right to suspend from certain provision as Blair did after 9/11
Outline an example where the strengths and limitations of the HRA are illustrated
Bel marsh Case 2004
After 9/11 attacks in USA Blair government suspended Article 5 right to liberty so he could keep foreign terrorist suspects without charge in custody
Parliament also enacted 2001 Anti Terrorism crime and Security Act which gave government the authority to keep foreign terrorist suspects in prison indefinitely
Judges issued a formal statement of incompatibility declaring the Anti terrorism Crime Security Act was contrary to article 14, freedom from discrimination of HRA as the foreign suspects were being treated differently to British suspects
Initially government ignored the ruling but then released the suspects because of the bad publicity
Soon after parliament enacted the prevention of terrorism act 20025 which allowed governments to limit the freedom of movement of all terrorist suspects
What was the last major constitutional reform of the Blair government
Constitutional reform act 2005
It ended House of Lords judicial function and established the Supreme Court in 2009 who would dispense justice in a more transparent way
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) would recommend appointments of judges to the justice secretary
Lord Chief Justice was appointed to be a non political figure to preside over House of Lords
