The Constitution

• Uncodified constitution


  • Difficult to understand
  • Flexible
• Codified constitution


  • Key constitutional rules collected together in a single document
  • Constitutional rules more clearly defined
  • Less confusion about meaning of constitutional rules
  • Greater certainty that constitutional rules can be enforced
  • Tends to be more rigid
  • Difficult to change
  • Can become outdated and fail to respond to changing political environment
• Codifying the constitution


  Leads to limited government
• Codified constitution


  • Cuts government down to size
  • Ends parliamentary sovereignty
  • Higher law safeguards constitution from interference by government
  • Policed by senior judges
  • Judges act as neutral and impartial constitutional arbiters
• Improving democracy or strengthening checks and balances may be better ways of preventing an over-mighty government than a codified constitution
• Judges are unelected and socially unrepresentative, so may not be the best people to police the constitution
• A codified constitution could be interpreted in a way that is not subject to public accountability and may reflect the preferences and values of senior judges
• Codified constitution


  • Protects individual liberty by defining the relationship between state and citizens
  • Rights more clearly defined and easier to enforce
  • Has educational value in highlighting central values and goals of political system
  • Strengthens citizenship by creating clearer sense of political identity
• Codified constitutions are legalistic and inevitably biased as they enforce one set of values or rights in preference to others
• The US Bill of Rights has not stopped discrimination against black people for two centuries
• Constitutional documents, including codified constitutions, can never be 'above' politics
• UK constitution


  • Flexible and easy to change
  • Not entrenched
• Introduction of devolution in 1997 was a response to rising nationalism in Scotland and Wales
• UK constitution


  • Has evolved over time
  • Does not result in old-fashioned ideas being entrenched
• Codified systems codify the rights that were relevant at the time into a document that is supposed to endure
• UK's uncodified constitution


  • Has developed and grown over time, giving it an organic character
• It is sometimes difficult to know what the UK constitution says
• Flexibility is not a positive trait in a constitution, as constitutions need to be clear and relatively rigid
• Confusion surrounds many constitutional rules because they are not clear, particularly the unwritten elements like conventions
• The organic nature of the UK's constitution provides weak protection for individual rights and civil liberties
• Apart from the fear of not being re-elected, there is nothing that forces the government to respect individuals and basic rights in the UK constitution
• The passage of the Human Rights Act 1998 has improved rights protection, but it stops well short of being an entrenched bill of rights
• UK's uncodified constitution


  • Supreme constitutional authority rests, ultimately, in the elected House of Commons
  • Changes to the constitution often come about because of democratic pressure
• The UK's long period of democratic rule is often seen as evidence of the strength of its constitutional system
• The reason why the UK constitution has a democratic flavour is because of the importance of Parliamentary sovereignty
• The UK has an over-centralised system of government with ineffective checks and balances which undermines its democratic aspects
• The UK government is characterised more by the concentration of power and an over-mighty executive
• Despite the constitutional reforms introduced since 1997 having dispersed government power, many argue that they do not enable Government to be effectively checked
• UK constitution


  • Helps to make UK governments stronger and more effective
  • Absence of a 'written' constitution means government decisions backed by statute law are sovereign and cannot be struck down
  • Allows UK governments to take strong and decisive action
• The most serious and challenging criticism of the UK constitution is that it gives rise to the problem of 'elective dictatorship'
• Once elected, UK governments can more or less act as they please until they come up for re-election, because sovereign power is vested in the hands of Parliament and Parliament is routinely controlled, even dominated, by the government of the day
• The concentration of power in the hands of the executive allows the government of the day to shape and reshape the constitution however it wishes
• This creates the impression that, in effect, the UK does not have a constitution
• Evaluate the view that the constitutional reforms introduced since 1997 improved the British political system. (30)
• Devolution


  • Gave a stronger and more independent political voice to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
  • Previously, they had been represented primarily through Parliament, where English MPs represented them
  • The devolved bodies have allowed the governments to become closer to the citizens they represent, making politicians more accountable to the electorate, and ensuring their representatives are concerned with their issues
  • Devolution makes the government much more region sensitive: the new institutions deliver different policies to those produced by Westminster
• Electoral systems introduced for the devolved bodies

  • Improved the representation of small parties and prevented electoral distortion
  • The introduction of different types of electoral systems to first-past-the-post has been successful and helps ensure that the number of seats more closely mirrors the number of votes
  • The use of AMS in Scotland & Wales has given many smaller parties and independents their first seats
• Devolution


  Threatened the stability of the UK
• After the SNP won an overall majority in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections a referendum was held in 2014. While it was a 'no' vote, the genie was out of the bottle and IndyRef2 was deemed more likely after the UK as a whole
• Brexit; the UK as a whole but not Scotland, voted to leave the EU in 2016
• Devolution has created tensions between different devolved bodies – seen in Nicola Sturgeon's response to Rishi Sunak using section 35 of the Scottish act to top a self gender identification bill