The UK is known to have an unwritten constitution, however, although, they do not exist in a single text, like other countries e.g. USA and Germany, large parts of the UK constitution is actually written down, most of it being statutes. “Therefore, the UK constitution is often described as ‘partly written and wholly unmodified'”. The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty is about the relationship between the Parliament and the courts. Is parliament supreme or the courts?
Parliament in Britain is generally regarded as making laws that apply to the entire population but there is no universal agreement that it should have unlimited power to make laws of whatever kind. In many constitutions, legal limits on parliament to make laws are set out in their written constitutions but as Britain does not have such a written constitution, does it mean that there are no legal limits on parliament? The traditional doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty was first defined by Dicey in the 19th century in his book “The Law of the Constitution”. According to Dicey’s theory, parliamentary sovereignty means, “the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and further, that no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having a ride to override or set asides the legislation of parliament.” This idea of parliament being sovereign was formed at time where England was not a democratic country and it could be argued that this theory is dated and can no longer be regarded as an immutable part of UK Constitutional law. If Dicey’s theory is placed in historical context, it was produced in a very different political environment to today.
It can further be separated into codified and uncodified. An uncodified constitution is a constitution which has not been written down in a single document in an organised form. An uncodified constitution is partly written and unwritten but cannot be found in a single form. For example the UK has an uncodified constitution, the constitution cannot be found in a single form. Uncodified constitutions tend not to be entrenched therefore short term amendments can be made which might have negative impacts on citizens.
Constitutional construction is one mechanism by which constitutional meaning is elaborated. It works alongside constitutional interpretation to elaborate the existing constitutional order. The process of constitutional construction is concerned with fleshing out constitutional principles, practices and rules that are not visible on the face of the constitutional text and that are not readily implicit in the terms of the constitution. We can imagine a continuum of actions that political actors can take under a Constitution, ranging from policymaking to revolution. At one end of the continuum, political actors can take constitutional forms as a given and make policy decisions under it, filling government offices and exercising government power in (constitutionally) noncontroversial ways.
QUESTION: What rules would you use to interpret the Constitution? A Constitution of a state refers to the basic and fundamental principles which the inhabitants of the state consider to be essential for their governance and well being. [1] A Constitution lays down political and other state institutions and distributes powers among them and puts limitations on the exercise of those powers. In most countries, the fundamental laws of the land are contained in one document or a series of documents for which the word ‘Constitution’ is reserved, but in a few countries like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, there is no single document which embraces all these rules or which can be referred to specifically as the Constitution of the state. Nevertheless, such countries have Constitutions because the word ‘constitution’ is a legal expression which identifies all the elements of how a country is organised and governed.
Lack of sufficient recordkeeping has prevented scholars from positively identifying his lifespan; and even his genuine existence for that matter. He is said to have been the writer of the Tao Te Ching, which is the foremost text that Taoists observe. This script describes “the nature of life, the way to peace and how a ruler should lead his life” (Robinson). The Tao Te Ching is not written in any logical order, but rather just one proverb, randomly, after another. There is also no certainty about when or where it was written.
The judicial branch must review the laws the executive branch is to enforce. There is also the legislative branch. This branch contains the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and the Library of Congress. Laws are created through the legislative branch. The basic idea between the creations of the three branches is based upon “checks and balances.” No branch should become so powerful that it over-takes either of the other branches.
Only the Constitution could, and the document said nothing about the Supreme Court having the power to issue such an order. Thus, the Supreme Court could not force Jefferson and Madison to appoint Marbury, because it did not have the power to do so. In later court
Therefore Parliament sovereignty is the most important part of the UK constitution. A Constitution is a set of rules and processes describing the political institutions of a state, the sharing of power among intuitions, the rights of citizens and the limits to the powers of the state. The UK Constitution has never been written in document thus it is known as uncodified or “unwritten constitution.” As it doesn’t written in a single document it is more flexible but vulnerable. The constitution has been drawn from legislation, treaties, judicial precedents, convention and numerous other sources. The Unwritten constitutions principal source is statue law, I.e., laws passed by the UK parliament but also includes; Acts of Parliament/Statutes, Conventions, Common Law, European Treaties, Works of authority and Traditions.
Should Britain adopt a codified constitution? Should the UK have a codified constitution? A constitution is a set of rules that establishes how political power should be distributed, the relationship between political institutions, the limits to government, the rights of citizens and how the constitution can be changed. In the UK, we have an uncodified constitution; this means that it is not written down on one single document. However, recently more and more people have become in favour of codifying the constitution.