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2007-11-11 21:33:50 · 4 answers · asked by padugapatti r 1 in Arts & Humanities History

4 answers

How does "invisible ink" sound, as England does not have a written constitution. It goes by parliamentary decisions, legal statutes, etc.

This is what Wikipedia had to say to confirm the above:
Because the UK has no single codified documentary constitution along the lines of the Constitution of the United States, it is often said that the country has an "unwritten constitution". However, most of the constitution does exist in the written form of statutes, court judgments and treaties. The constitution does have some unwritten sources, though, including Parliamentary conventions and the royal prerogatives.

The bedrock of the British constitution has traditionally been the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy or parliamentary sovereignty, according to which the statutes passed by Parliament are the UK's supreme and final source of law. It follows that Parliament can change the constitution simply by passing new Acts of Parliament. The judgment of Lord Justice Laws in the Thoburn case in 2002 indicated that there may be a special class of "constitutional statutes" such as Magna Carta and the Human Rights Act 1998 which have a higher status than other legislation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom

2007-11-11 21:51:26 · answer #1 · answered by sirburd 4 · 0 0

The previous answer is right in saying the United Kingdom (not England, that is just one part) does not have a written constitution, but relies on unwritten 'understandings' in many cases. The Queen, for example, could refuse to pass an Act of Parliament but convention dictates that she will never overrule the will of the elected House of Commons. However, statute provides for the limited powers the unelected House of Lords has in delaying or stopping Bills presented to it which have been passed by the Commons. Further, the Courts have no powers to declare legislation unconstitutional - all they can do is interpret what statutes say and if they are open to different interpretations say what they think Parliament meant. The leading commentary on the British Constitution is still still Walter Bagehot'e 'The English Constitution' written in 1867

2007-11-11 22:04:28 · answer #2 · answered by rdenig_male 7 · 0 0

More correctly it should be The British Constitution and as your previous respondent points out, there is no written British Constitution.

The British Constitution is unwritten, unlike the constitution in America or the proposed European Constitution, and as such, is referred to as an uncodified constitution in the sense that there is no single document that can be classed as Britain's constitution. The British Constitution can be found in a variety of documents. Supporters of our constitution believe that the current way allows for flexibility and change to occur without too many problems. Those who want a written constitution believe that it should be codified so that the public as a whole has access to it – as opposed to just constitutional experts who know where to look and how to interpret it.

Amendments to Britain’s unwritten constitution are made the same way – by a simply majority support in both Houses of Parliament to be followed by the Royal Assent.

The British Constitution comes from a variety of sources. The main ones are:

Statutes such as the Magna Carta of 1215 and the Act of Settlement of 1701.
Laws and Customs of Parliament; political conventions
Case law; constitutional matters decided in a court of law
Constitutional experts who have written on the subject such as Walter Bagehot and A.V Dicey.
There are two basic principles to the British Constitution:

The Rule of Law and The Supremacy of Parliament

2007-11-11 22:05:26 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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2016-10-16 05:34:12 · answer #4 · answered by saulsbery 4 · 0 0

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