British Constitution

• Executive: The branch of government responsible for the implementation of policy
• Legislature: The branch of government responsible for passing laws
• Judicial: Upholds and makes judgements on the law
• The constitution is uncodified and can easily be amended.
• The doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty concentrates authority at the centre.
• The executive and legislative are fused, with the executive dominant.
• The Westminster Model focuses on the constitution and major institutions, and reflects the long-standing British experience of strong, centralised government run by disciplined political parties.
• An independent judiciary upholds the rule of law, but cannot strike down laws made by parliament.
• Representative Democracy means the government is held accountable through elections
• A constitution is the set of rules by which politics is conducted and usually contains the structure for an organisation, lays out the purpose of the constitution and defines the duties and responsibilities of the government.
• The separation of powers is where the 3 elements of government power (legislative, executive and judiciary) are held by separate branches of government in order to prevent tyranny.
• Checks and balances are a crucial feature of the constitution framework in which each branch of government is limited by the others and therefore prevents too much concentration of power in any one institution or individual.
• Entrenched rights are those explicitly protected by the constitution and are therefore difficult to change.
• Codified constitutions are entrenched with the aim to protect essentials of modern constitutionalism such as democracy, human rights or the rule of law.
• The British Constitution is not entrenched.
• Fundamental laws are the basic laws that make up the constitution of a country.
• Higher laws are those considered to be superior to constitutions and those that enacted legislation.
• Unconstitutional laws are given the name if they break the laws of the political system laid out in the constitution.
• Popular sovereignty is the principal that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people who are the source of all political power.
• Constitutions are a very important part of liberal democracies so that the government is politically stable and not corrupt.
• Statute Law is law created by Parliament, implemented by the executive and enforced by the courts. Not all will be constitutionally significant as they don’t impact on the relationship between state and the individual.
• Common Law is laws or rights resulting in the rulings of senior judges in the courts. Sometimes referred to as case law or judge-made law.
• The Royal Prerogative is the formal powers of the monarch that are exercised by the prime minister and the government. The modern monarchy must be above party politics and plays a ceremonial role. Important prerogative powers, such as appointing ministers, making international treaties and calling general elections lie with the executive rather than the legislature.
• Conventions are unwritten rules and procedures mostly concerned with parliament that facilitate the smooth running of the Constitution. When conventions are broken it can often lead to problems and deadlock
• Works of authority are arguably the least visible and clear sources of the British Constitution. They comprise of a variety of books and documents that deal with areas including parliamentary procedures and the responsibilities and duties of government and ministers.
• Authoritative opinions are views and definitions that are important and regarded as the final word of authority on an issue.
• The UK is signatory to a number of international agreements including the European Convention on Human Rights and protocols dealing with areas such as climate change. The government is obliged to abide by their terms or face legal challenges in court.
• Parliamentary sovereignty is the cornerstone of the UK constitution. Sovereignty means legal supremacy, so the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty holds that the Westminster Parliament is the supreme law making body.
• The rule of law defines the relationship between the state and its citizens, ensuring that state action is limited and responsible. According to A.V.Dicey (1885), the rule of law has two main strands: No one can be punished without trial and No one is above the law, and all are subject to the same justice.
• In a unitary constitution subnational institutions do not have autonomous powers that are constitutionally safeguarded, regional government may be weak or non-existent and local government has little power.
• Parliamentary government under a constitutional monarchy is a political system in which the monarch is the formal head of state but the monarch’s legal powers are exercised by government ministers.
• A Unitary State is centralised with power concentrated in the centre, central government has ultimate authority and all areas are governed in the same way.
• A Union State is a state whose parts have come together through crown or treaty, high centralisation, but a degree of pre-union difference (e.g. church), central power, differing autonomy.
• A Federal State is where the constitution divides state and federal powers, one tier of government can not abolish the other and regions have distinct political and cultural identity
• An independent, non-politicised judiciary also serves to defends citizens rights. However, since rights are not entrenched in a codified constitution, you could argue that rights are vulnerable to the whims of parliament.
• Most discrimination-related rights, such as pay equality, qual access to services and employments are protected in the Equality Act 2010