Nature and Sources of Constitution

• Three major principles

  • Soveriegnity of Parliament
  • Fusion of powers
  • Uncodified - stretching of powers
• Uncoded constitution means that it isn't written down so its difficult to know what the rules are
• Parliamentary sovereignty is the idea that parliament has ultimate authority over all other institutions, including the courts
• Three sources of the British Constitution

  • Statute Law - An act of parliament - 1869 Representation of peoples act lowered voting age to 18 - rarely infringes on constitution
  • Royal prerogative - constitutional monarchy devolved power to executive - authority derived from crown not parliament - 2019 Boris prorogue parliament - unlawful
  • Conventions : Set of parliamentary rules that have evolved over time— not legally binding - Lindsay Hoyle broke convention in SNP Gaza Ceasefire vote by tabling Labours amendments - Tory and SNP Mp’s walked out of parliament
• How have rights developed constitutionally?

  • Parliament Acts ( 1911 and 1949 ) - Reduced the power of the lords - Only block legislation for a year - no veto - could not alter budget bills and Salisbury’s convention created
  • Bill of rights 1689 - prevents monarchs froM changing law without parliaments consent
  • Human Rights Act 1998 - incorporates rights set out in the EHCR into uk constitution - Used in Windrush scandal case against the gov - article 2 and 8 infringed
• Three ways the Labour gov 97-10 promoted greater democracy?

  • Constitutional Reform Act 2005 - Increased separation of powers by increasing Supreme Court with seperate building and demolished law lords - Rwanda Case 2022 - Voted against government and reaffirms people’s trust as they were part of parliament before
  • House of Lords Act 1999 - did reduce the number of hereditary peers to 92, the House of Lords threatened to use its powers to obstruct and delay reform. It was in return for the Lords’ compliance that the government left a number of hereditary peers in place
• Three ways the labour gov 97-10 promoted greater democracy

  1. Constitutional reform act 2005

  2. House of Lords Act 1999

  3. Freedom of information act 2000
• Freedom of information act 2000

  Government accountability as people had access to info held by public bodies and see documents and reports of gov reports
• Three ways the Labour government has protected human rights?

  • Human Rights Act 1998 - Abu Qatada individual rights protected as EHRA overruled English Law
  • Equality Act 2010 - Combat discrimination and promote a fairer society - collation of previous legislation though
  • Freedom of information act 2000
• Three ways the Conservative government (10-16) has made an attempt to modernise

  • Reform of the House of Commons - Chaired by Labour Tony Wright - Chairs of Commons Select Committees to be chosen by Mps not gov
  • Recall of MP’s act 2015 - Voters needed legal means to remove an mp - custodial sentence or 21 day suspension can trigger a by-election if 10% constituents sign a petititon
  • Fixed term parliament act 2011 - Ended pm power to choose a date for general election by establishing five year intervals - new gov only if 2/3 mps vote
• Three examples of constitutional convention :

  • Salisbury convention -cannot block an act of parliament if it was in the manifesto - essentially overturned as Rwanda passed with only one reform although a heavily criticised and borderline illegal bill powers. Prerogative - Boris was allowed to shut parliament due to stretching his powers - ruled illegal though
  • Use of referendum to approve major constitutional changes - Brexit - gradually established since failed devolution refs 1979 - uncLear what it applies to since not used with human rights act or fixed term parliament
• Three arguments in favour of a codified constitution :

  • Formally curtail powers of the government as powers are currently stretched by PM - conventions are weak - Boris and proroguing parliament + Tony blair Iraq war -addressing problems of an elected dictatorship
  • More democratic Britain - uncodified is confusing and citizens cannot find a comprehensive understanding - growth in public awareness and civil liberties - Reform elections - reduce concentration of powers in executive with elected dictatorship
• Three arguments in favour of retaining uncodified constitution

  • Evolutionary and adapt to changing ideals and attitudes relatively quickly with ease - Same sex marriage act 2013 - living constitution
  • No Need to - human rights and civil liberties strengthened by HRA - Allowed for Supreme Court to issue ‘declaration of incompatibility’ when lwas are illegal - without seperation and gridlock of America
  • Directly challenge the notion of parliamentary sovereignty which system was built on - too much power given to unelected judges who may be out of touch
• House of Lords act 1999 : 


  Removed all but 92 hereditary peers
• Constitutional Reform Act 2005 


  Created seperate SC replacing Law Lords - greater sense of judicial independence and transparency and indeoendant committee to appoint justices unlike America
• House of Lords Reform act 2014 : 


  Allowed for peers to have the right to resign and enabled the removal of peers convicte of serious offences or non attendance - eg Sir Steel left early 2020
• Greater democracy within the political system :

  Referendums : Scotland and Wales Act 1997 - allowed for voters to vote on devolution which passed

  Greater London Authority Act 1999 - allowed for directly elected mayor for ldn

  2011 FPA - Repealed in 2022. - five year period between elections -
• Conventions 


  Invite leader of party to form gov by monarch. When hung parliament in 2010 the leader with majority seats is invited and Cameron formed a coalition government
• Convention 


  Royal assent - last time it was withheld was 1707 - denies would create a constitutional crisis
• Parliament Acts - 1911 


  1911 - ended Lords absolute veto and restricted to two years delay - prevented from money or budget bills
• Parliament Act 1949 


  Reduce delay to 1 year

  Increased democratic accountability of Westminster - unelected chamber couldn’t frustrate the will of the elected - any bill passed after a year becomes law
• Greater democracy

  • Referendums
  • Greater London Authority Act
  • Police reform and social responsibility act
  • 2011 Fixed parliament act
• Scotland and Wales act 1997 


  Allowed referendums to be held over creation of devolved legislatures - yes although slim margin
• Greater London authority act 1999 


  Direct elected mayor for London

  later 2000 act allowed for other cities
• European parliamentary elections 1999


  changed from fptp to pr
• police reform and social responsibility act 2011

  direct election of police and crime commissioner
• Human rights act 1998

  incorporated ECHR into uk law. reduced number of cases sent abroad whilst protecting rights

  • Abu Qatada - individual rights protected - Jordan used torture and death penalty
  • Gay cake - Went with individual rights as the case was understood as ‘forced speech’
  • FGM - Went with collective rights of uk society as fgm would be classified as a form of child abuse - the indivual rights of the child are of the upmost importance - Lack of informed consent makes the ban straightforward
• Freedom of information act 2000


  Individual greater access to info held by public bodies - gov

  • Mp’s expense scandal 2009 - 5 labour and 2 cons jailed - partygate expenses during Covid
  • only 40% answered in full
  • later disenchanted with journalists use
• Modernisation of political institutions success

  • HOL is diverse and much less conservative and easier to remove peers
  • Creation of SC - clear separation of powers - apolitical unlike the us
  • notions of gender equality have reached royal family
• modernisation failures

  • reform is incomplete - attempts to democratise have become failures - uk is virtually unique with unelected chamber
  • sc has undermined Parliament
  • still remains illegal for monarch to be Roman Catholic
• democratisation success

  • greater autonomy in larger cities atracking names like Boris and Sadiq
  • devolution has allowed for better lawmaking and conditions for people as they are better understood with tailored bills
  • police and crime commissioner has enuanced opportunity for political participation
• democratisation failures

  • majority of cities had rejected mayoral elections but 2024 just had them - turnout is abysmal - 11.6% PCC Staffordshire
  • 2011 vote referendum - lack of enthusiasm for reform
  • provisions of fpta easily overcome in 2017 and 2019 to bring early general elections
• Human rights successes

  • increased awareness and rights for minority groups - Uber drivers
  • Freedom of info is a check on the executive and legislature and allows for better scrutiny
  • SC creation has enhanced human rights - ECHR and Abu Qatada
• Human right failures

  • Identity politics - clash between individual and collective - wikileaks ongoing case
  • Growing role of court in human rights cases - Rwanda, Terrorism bill 2010 = controversy and ‘undermine‘ parliamentary sovereignty
  • FOI - many cases rejected
• Devolution success

  • Popular support for devolution has increased - SNP dominates Scottish assembly
  • ni devolution has allowed for end of troubles and violence although a broke system
• devolution failures

  • NI struggles and isn’t successful - can be dissolved for ages with uk takeover - 2017 to 2020
  • Support for devolution in England hasn’t increased
• How well does constitution protect rights -

  • Constitutional culture values civil liberties - every parliamentary act contains a declaration of compatibility with HRA
  • Little political consensus - Conservative British bill of rights - European judgments spark media attacks on uk courts
  • brexit removed non discrimination laws
  • gov can pass acts diluting power eg terrorism as they can declare something legal
  • social and economic rights are seen as poorly established with over 2 million children being victim of food poverty
• Collective rights - sham a begu stripped of citizenship on national security basis - 2024 appeal was rejected
• Constitutional reform - lower voting age to 16 - labour manifesto - larger and more inclusive participation and solve participation crisis
• codified constitution - Boris destroyed good chap theory by ignoring convention and ministerial code - pincher and priti Patel - would make it easier for MPs to be held accountable