UK Constitutional Law
Table of Contents
LECTURE 1: THE NATURE AND PURPOSE OF CONSTITUTIONS.........................................................................1
LECTURE 2: SOURCES OF THE UK CONSTITUTION........................................................................................... 5
LECTURE 3: CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.............................................................................................. 13
LECTURE 4: THE INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT........................................................................................22
LECTURE 5: SEPARATION OF POWERS (I)..................................................................................................... 30
LECTURE 6: THE SEPARATION OF POWERS (2).............................................................................................. 36
LECTURE 7: THE SEPARATION OF POWERS (3).............................................................................................. 42
LECTURES 8: THE RULE OF LAW (I)............................................................................................................... 47
LECTURES 9: THE RULE OF LAW (II).............................................................................................................. 53
LECTURES 10: THE RULE OF LAW (III) AND THE ROYAL PREROGATIVE...........................................................62
LECTURE 11: PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY (I).......................................................................................... 66
LECTURE 12: PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY (II)......................................................................................... 75
LECTURE 13: PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY (III)........................................................................................83
LECTURE 14: PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY (IV).......................................................................................91
LECTURE 15: PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY (V)........................................................................................99
LECTURE 16: DEVOLUTION AND THE TERRITORIAL CONSTITUTION.............................................................110
LECTURES 17 AND 18: GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY............................................................................119
LECTURE 19: REVISION LECTURE................................................................................................................ 131
PART 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED KINGDOM CONSTITUTION
Lecture 1: The Nature and Purpose of Constitutions
States have one document outlining all the rule regulating the power of government –
constitution – takes precedent over ordinary legislation. If there is a conflict, usually the
conditional rule will win out.
All actions taking by the exec/legislator are alongside the constitution.
Can’t alter constitutions through the ordinary process e.g. may require referendum/majority
etc
The UK does not have such one document – our constitutional rules are spread out amongst
a variety of sources (written acts of Parliament, some are not, some have legal force, others
are not judicially enforceable).
,The UK also functions under three constitutional principles – separation of powers, rule of
law, parliamentary sovereignty.
Definitions
‘The constitution is a thing antecedent to a government; and a government is only a
creature of a constitution’
Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1790)
The Condition is the body of rules that apply to government
‘the set of the most important rules and common understandings in any given country that
regulate the relations among that country’s governing institutions and also the relations
between the country’s governing institutions and the people of that country’.
Anthony King, The British Constitution (OUP, 2007) 3
The government draws its power to govern from its constitution
‘a special form of law embodied as a matter of convenience in a single document’.
FF Ridley, ‘There is no British Constitution: A Dangerous Case of the Emperor’s Clothes’
(1988) 41(3) Parliamentary Affairs 340, 342
Constitutional law is a superior form of law – where all other laws emanate from
Our principle is not constitutional supremacy (like USA) but it is parliamentary supremacy –
acts of parliament are the highest forms of law.
Is constitutional law in the UK a special form of law?
JAG Griffith, ‘The Political Constitution’ (1979) 42(1) MLR 1, 19:
‘the constitution is no more and no less than what happens. Everything that happens
is constitutional. And if nothing happened that would be constitutional also’.
If statues are the highest form of law in the UK Con, Acts of P can easily be
amended/repealed, laws change so easily – such a flexibility to the UK’s con has resulted in
certain scholars calling our con a political one. Con is understood to respond to the politics
of the day – through the acts of p.
Nothing regulating what the p ought/should do – p simply does it.
The core functions of constitutions:
1. Establishing the structures of government;
2. Setting out the powers the government can exercise;
3. Defining the relationship between the individual and the state.
The core purposes of constitutions are in tension:
1. To enable government; but also
, 2. To place limitations on how governmental power is exercised.
Which functions of the constitution enable gov, and ones limit?
Establishing State Institutions and allocating/limiting their powers
Establishing National Institutions of State
• Legislative power: the power to make and pass laws – the legal rules we are
expected to live by;
• Judicial power: the power to interpret and apply these rules to everyday situations;
• Executive power: running the country; putting the law into effect – administering –
carrying out tasks like maintaining order; representing the state on the international
stage etc.
Establishing Sub-National Institutions:
• In addition, a constitution may divide these powers between the central government
and regional governments (in federal/devolved systems). Cf. Unitary systems.
Defining Rights/the Relationship between Individual and State
• Bills of Rights are a common means of doing this. See, for example, the first ten
amendments to the US Constitution (providing, for example, freedom of expression,
religion, and assembly (First Amendment); due legal process (Fifth Amendment);
• In the United Kingdom the equivalent legislation is the Human Rights Act 1998 that
gives effect to the European Convention on Human Rights.
• With judicial review of administrative action also providing a key means by which
individual and group interests can be asserted in the face of intrusive state activity.
Codified or uncodified?
• Constitutions are typically categorised as either being codified (otherwise referred to
as written or documentary constitutions) or uncodified (otherwise known as
unwritten or non-documentary constitutions).
• Most of the world’s constitutions are codified (the United Kingdom, along with New
Zealand and Israel, is one a small number which do not have a codified constitution)
• This does not mean that these countries do not have ‘constitutional’ laws (for
instance the UK’s Human Rights Act; the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act; the Israeli
basic law). Anthony King draws a distinction between Constitutions and
constitutions.
• All constitutions are autobiographical. – based on the opinions of the people at the
time they were made, reflect aspirations/keen concerns at the time of passing
• There are significant variations in content as between constitutions
Does it matter that the UK has an uncodified con – not one doc containing all the provisions
of the con?
, It seems that our constitutional rules are operating well
Consituteproject.org
Is the distinction between codified and uncodified constitutions meaningful?
AS King, The British Constitution (OUP 2007) 5:
• ‘The truth is that constitutions, as we are using the term here, are never – repeat,
never – written down in their entirety’.
A Tomkins, Public Law (Clarendon 2003) 8:
• ‘…even a cursory glance at the American constitutional text suffices to illustrate that
notwithstanding its almost sacred status in the USA it does not contain a complete
code of all America’s constitutional rules, nor even of all the important ones.’
Even the US con does not contain all the provisions that make up US con law – Supreme
court makes interpretations – become part of con law despite not being part of the saem
document. Not just based on the written rules, based on court decisions, traditions, etc
The great degree of flexibility associated with UK con – nothing stopping parliament from
introducing an Act that could change the con – can’t actually call it a constitution (other
countries it takes a lot to change).
Flexibility and Inflexibility of Constitutions: Amending Constitutions
Written constitutions are often seen as the inflexible supreme law of a state, placing
sovereignty in the law ‘above’ the government.
ü Some constitutions entrench certain features or characteristics of the system:
Ø Germany: federalism as a state structure is an entrenched element of the
constitutional architecture.
ü But many written constitutions include provisions for their own amendment:
Ø USA: If two thirds of both Houses of Congress propose a change, and it is ratified by
three quarters of the legislatures of the states, the change may be brought into the
constitution. The high level of assent required explains the relatively few changes in
the US constitution in over 200 years.
Does the United Kingdom have a Constitution?
It is often suggested that the ‘unwritten’ nature of the UK’s constitutional order, and the
apparent flexibility of the UK’s system, lead to the conclusion that the UK has no
constitution (even though systems with documentary constitutions also rely on ‘unwritten’
rules and are open to change).
A more sustained challenge is mounted by FF Ridley who argues that constitutions have
essential characteristics:
1. The constitution must be ‘prior to the system of government, not part of it’;
