UK Consitution - Nature & Sources Of Consitution

Question 1

Begins of constitution

Answer 1

• begun with Magna Carta 1215
• an agreement to prevent abuse of royal power
• sets out principle that no one is above the law & sets out the right to a fair trial for all free men

Question 2

The bill of rights

Answer 2

• put into law when William 3rd & Mary 2nd took the throne in 1689
• established idea that the monarch power is reliant on the consent of parliament, freedom of speech & free election

Question 3

Act of settlement (1701)

Answer 3

• stated that only Protestant could become monarch & gave control over the line of succession & throne to parliament
• shortly followed by the fist acts of union - acts that established the union of Scotland (1707) and Ireland (1801) with England to form Great Britain

Question 4

1911 & 1949 acts of parliment

Answer 4

• 1911 parliament act prevents lords from delaying money bills and other bills more than two years
• 1949 parliament act reduced this period to 1 year

Question 5

1972 European communities act

Answer 5

• piece of legislation that entered Britain into the European Economic community which would later become the EU
• this gave EU law precedent over UK law in the case of a conflict
• Brexit process involves repealing this act

Question 6

Unentrenched

Answer 6

• uk constitution is unentranched
• means its easily changed by a simple act of parliament or even shift in convention

Question 7

Uncodified

Answer 7

• uk constitution is uncodified
• not written down in one document & made up of multiple sources

Question 8

Unitary

Answer 8

• UK consitituon is unitary
• all power is centralised n the parliament in Westminster
• diluted in recent years due to devolution
• many now refer to the UK as a ‘union state’

Question 9

Parliamentary sovereignty

Answer 9

• idea that parliament is a supreme and ultimate authority sits with it, as representative of the people
• no parliament can bind its successor -parliment can repeal any passed acts from previous parliament
• supreme legislative body

Question 10

Rule of law

Answer 10

• everyone is subject to the law
• everyone entitled to fair trial & equal under the law & must obey it
• for this to work the judiciary must be independent from political interference

Question 11

Sources - statue law

Answer 11

• all legislation created by parliment
• not all laws are considered constitutional - only those that deal with the nature of politics
• most important source of the constitution due to the principe of parliamentary sovereignty
• all other states can be overridden by statue law
• eg - 2005 constitutional reform act

Question 12

Sources - common law

Answer 12

• made up of customs & judical precedent
• eg - the royal prerogative are a pat of common law

Question 13

Sources - conventions

Answer 13

• customs & practices that are accepted as the way of doing things
• eg - the PM is the leader of the largest party in parliment
• can be removed or made permanent by statue law
• eg - 2011 fixed term parliament act was a convention put into statue law

Question 14

Sources - authorative works

Answer 14

• books or written guides into the working of the UK constitution
• eg ‘the English consitiution’
• not legally binding but well respected

Question 15

Sources - constitution

Answer 15

• agreements signed with other countries
• eg - Maastricht Treaty (1992) establishing the EU
• UK recently negotiated a new treaty that allowed the UK to leave the EU (Brexit)