Sources of the British Constitution

• Sources of the British Constitution

  • Statue Law
  • Common law
  • Conventions
  • Authoritative Works
  • FORMALLY European Law also included
• Statue Law

  Most important source of the British Constitution

  • Statue laws are Acts of Parliament, Primary legislation, created by Parliament
  • Statue Law must be approved by parliament, the commons, the lords and monarch
  • then placed on the statue book and enforced by courts
• Statue Law

  Secondary Legislation

  • Secondary legislation is law made by an executive under delegated powers to implement primary legislation
  • Sometimes called Henry VIII powers - they enable primarly legislation to be amended or repealed without parliamentary scrutiny
  • governements often use secondary legislation to ban new substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
• Statue Law

  Great Reform Act 1832

  • gave the vote to middle class men
  • introduced an explicit bar to women by defining a voter as a male person
  • created 67 new constituencies
  • ended rotten and pocket boroughs
  • redistributed seats to urban areas
• Statue Law

  Parliaments Acts 1911 and 1949

  • Limited power of lords by reducing the time they could delay a bill to 2 years in 1911 then in 1949 to 1 year
  • removed the power to veto money bills except ones which extend the lifespan of parliament
  • established the house of commons as the main chamber of parliament
• Statue Law

  European Communities Act 1972

  • Challenged Parliamentary sovreignty
  • EU law has precedence over UK law
  • incorporated treaty of rome into UK law
• Statue Law

  Scotland Act 1998

  • established Scottish Parliament and gave it powers to legislate on certain matters
  • allowed scottish parliament o make their own laws
  • human rights act included
  • laid foundations of an independant scottish government
• Statue Law

  Human rights act 1998

  • Allows UK nationals to reply on rights created by the ECHR before domestic courts
  • enshrined human rights into UK law
  • compels public organisations and civil services to treat everyone equally
• Statue Law

  Fixed Term Parliaments act 2011 and the dissolution and calling of Parliament Act 2022

  • set in legislation a default fixed election date for general elections (2011)
  • repealed in 2022
  • 2022 act reinstated previous situation where the monarch has the power to summon and dissolve parliament
• Statue Law

  Significance

  • British constitution remains flexible and adaptable
  • trend has been toward progressing and protecting individual rights and democracy eg giving women the vote in 1928
• Common Law

  • Laws created by judges and passed down over years by legal judgements in the courts
  • represents judicial precedence including the right to free expression and defence of property rights
  • Magna Carta is based on common law not statue law
• Common Law

  Significance

  • does not hold precedence over statue law/acts of parliament
  • statue law can repeal or amend rights granted under common law, for example, rights of property owners have been modified in multiple documents over hundreds of years
  • Government ministers may amend, clarify or overturn common law through acts of parliament
• Royal Prerogative

  Powers exercised in the name of the crown, more traditionally the monarchs powers to:

  • declare war
  • give royal assent to legislation
  • appoint ministers

  Significance

  • can be limited by statue law, Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011
• Conventions

  Established norms of political behaviour

  • for example, the Pm should be a member of the commons is a convention
  • 1945 Sailsbury-Addison Convention, the lords agreed not to delay policies contained in the governing parties mannifesto
  • seen backfire under rishi sunaks Rwanda policy 2024, not included in mannifesto so was initially blocked by House of Lords
• Conventions

  Significance

  • not protected by anything other than tradition
  • lords rejected a peoples budget in 1909 and caused a constitutional crisis
  • passage of brexit reflects that the government bows to the will of the people following a referndum result