2159011
Description
Mind Map by johnsonlauren63, updated more than 1 year ago
|
Created by johnsonlauren63
about 11 years ago
|
|
The Nature of the
British Constitution
- Constitution
- Constitutions have multiple
purposes
- Commentators agree that
constitutions generally define the
institutions and powers of the state
- Constitution usually also
sets out the limits of state
power
- Constitution may
provide legitimation
for the use of state
powers within those
defined limits
- May also set out the
principles upon which the
state is founded
- May also provide a bill of
rights for citizens or
subjects
- It establishes the
framework of the state
- Constitutions have multiple
purposes
- Comparison of written and
unwritten constitutions
- Lawyers and political
commentators often refer to
the constitutions as either
written or unwritten or
uncodified
- Written constitution
usually refers to a
single document that
contains a bill of rights
and the constitutional
law that sets out the
structure of the state
- Unwritten constitution
or unmodified
constitution is used to
refer to constitutions that
are made up from
multiple documents or
sources
- Many written
constitutions in
recent times were
developed by the
need to restructure
the country after a
revolution, a major
change of regime or
a granting of
independence
- Lawyers and political
commentators often refer to
the constitutions as either
written or unwritten or
uncodified
- British constitution
- Unwritten and unmodified
- Unitary rather than federal
- Parliamentary
executive rather
than a
presidential
executive
- Constitutional
monarchy rather than
a republican
- Religious rather than secular
- Flexible rather than rigid
- Unusual in form
- Liberal democracy
- Unwritten and unmodified
- Sources of British constitution
- Made up of a wide range of sources
- Some sources are
legal, such as acts of
parliament,
secondary
legislation and the
common law
- Some are international legal
sources, such as EU law and the
ECHR
- Other sources
are non-legal,
such as
constitutional
conventions
- Constitutional conventions
cannot be enforced through
the courts, but they limit the
use of legal power that has
been given to those in power
by the constitution
- Sometimes referred to a
political mechanism for
restraining the excessive use
of power
- Made up of a wide range of sources
- Hierachial position of
British Constitution and
how amended
- UK constitution is not
hierarchially superior to
primary legislature
- Acts of parliament
cannot be compared
with the constitution
by judges and be
declared to be
unconstitutional and
invalid, even if an act
can be declared
incompatible with
ECHR
- UK constitution cannot be
enforced against the
legislation as a result, nor is
the UK constitution
entrenched and protected,
because it can always be
changed by and act of
parliament
- UK constitution can be
legally enforced by the
mechanism of judicial
review against the
executive, meaning that
the executive may legally
act only within its legal
power
- UK constitution is not
hierarchially superior to
primary legislature
- Proposed reforms
- Recent proposals to
reform the form as
well as the
substance of the
constitution
- Macdonald constitution, Tony
Benn's commonwealth of britain
bill, and the IPPR'S constitution
have all included proposals picked
up by previous labor government
in some form and have come into
force, even if UK is yet to adopt
written constitution.
- Coalition agreement of the
present government
contains a number of
constitutional reform
proposals including a
commission to examine a
British bill of rights
- Substance of the
reforms is likely to have
more far reaching
consequences that
merely the form that any
new constitution takes
- Recent proposals to
reform the form as
well as the
substance of the
constitution
Want to create your own Mind Maps for free with GoConqr? Learn more.