The United Kingdom has a
constitution. Discuss.
The Magna Carta is often thought of as the
corner stone of liberty and the chief defence against arbitrary and unjust rule
in England. In fact it contains few sweeping statements of principle and is a
series of concessions wrung from the unwilling King John by his rebellious
barons in 1215. However, Magna Carta established for the first time, a very
significant constitutional principle: that the power of the king could be
limited by a written grant.
The constitution of the UK is the uncodified
body of law and convention under which the UK is governed. Because the UK has
no single codified documentary constitution, 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 UK 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 purpose of a constitution is thought to be
that they are necessary in order to control the power of the state. Another thought
is that they emphasise the role constitutions play in ensuring that the power
derives from a legitimate source. On the one hand, it tells us how power may be
used and on the other, from where it is derived. The first idea may be
attributed to the notions of the Rule of Law, and the separation of powers,
whilst the second is clearly related to the notion of democratic legitimacy. It
is clear that there can be tension between these two ideas.
The Rule of Law is considered the most
fundamental doctrine of the constitution of the UK. The constitution is
believed to be founded on the idea of the Rule of Law. AV Dicey's view on the
rule of law cannot be ignored because of the lasting influence he has had.
Dicey's views were derived from his understanding of the nature of democracy in
UK as 'unitary and self-correcting' in which the will of the people are
expressed through Parliament, and in which Parliament controlled the
government. In setting out the Rule of Law, Dicey considered three distinct
elements:
- No punishment may be inflicted on
anyone other than for a breach of the law;
- Irrespective of rank and status,
all men are equal under the law; and
- The rights and freedom of citizen
are best protected under the common law.
However Dicey's opinions have subsequently
been analysed and criticized. Professor Jennings took Dicey to task on a number
of points, including the idea that the Rule of Law was inconsistent.
The word constitution has two meanings. In its
narrow meaning, it is a document having a special legal scrutiny that sets out
the framework and the principle functions of the organs of government within
the state and declares the principles by which those organs must operate. In
this sense of the word, the UK has no constitution. There is no single document
from which is derived the main authority of the main organs of government, such
as the Crown, the Cabinet, Parliament and the Courts of Law. But the word also
has a wider meaning, as Bolingbroke stated in 1733:
By
constitution we mean, whenever we speak with propriety and exactness, that
assemblage of laws, institutions and customs, derived from certain fixed
principles of reason, directed to certain fixed objects of public good, that
compose the general system, according to which the community hath agreed to be
governed.
In more modern words, constitution in this
wider sense refers to 'the whole system' of government of a country. So in this
sense, the UK has a constitution since it has a complex and comprehensive
system of government.
Also In 2001 the House of Lords Select
Committee on the Constitution defined constitution as 'the set of laws, rules
and practices that create the basic institutions of the state and its component
and related parts, and stipulate the powers of these institutions and the
relationship between these institutions and individuals'. Under this
definition, the UK most definitely has a constitution. By virtue of the fact
that there is a government, there is a constitution.
Although it has been acknowledged that the UK
does not have a written constitution, the UK constitution has been referred to
as a recognizable entity. However whilst this reflects the orthodox view, it is
worth noting that there is an alternative view, namely there is no UK
constitution. It has been argued by F F Ridley that the UK does not have a
constitution because none of the four essential characteristics of a
constitution is to be found here.
- It establishes or constitutes the
system of government and is thus not part of it
- It involves an authority outside
and above the order it establishes
- It is a form of law superior
- It is entrenched
When we look at the nature of Ridley's four
characteristics, it is evident that they are likely to be satisfied by a documentary
or codified constitution. Conversely, they are unlikely to be satisfied by a
written constitution. Thus, the claim that the UK has no constitution rests on
the fact that the UK has no written documentary constitution, which, in
Ridley's analysis, is the only appropriate form in which a constitution exists.
Bearing in mind Ridley's analysis the UK
should have a written constitution. But would they have any more value than an
unwritten constitution? They would provide some indication of what actually
happens in practice. A constitutional actor may look to the constitution to see
what is required from them in a given situation. However, regardless of the
length and complexity of a constitution, it is highly unlikely that it will
contain all the answers to all the questions.
In conclusion although the UK does not have a
single document codifying the way its political institutions function and
setting out the basic rights and duties of its citizens, the UK does have
certain important constitutional documents. But to say that the UK has no
written constitution is not to say that it has no constitution. On the
contrary, our political system is highly structured and the flexibility of the
UK constitution helps to explain why it has developed so fully over the years.
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