COSTITUTION OFTHE UNITED KINGDOM

What is the costitution of the United Kingdom?Acts of Parliament

Treaties

EU law

Common law

Conventions

Royal prerogative

Works of authority

What is the costitution of the United Kingdom?

The constitution of the United Kingdom is the set of laws and principles under which the United Kingdom is governed.

There is a big difference between the British costitution and those of the others nations: the UK has no single constituition (“unwritten” or de facto costituition).

The British costitution has:

• written form of statutes, court judgments and Treaties

• unwritten sources, including parliamentary constitutional conventions and the royal prerogatives.

The British constitution has traditionally been the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty: the statutes passed by Parliament are the UK's supreme and final source of law.

When the UK became membership of the European Union, it has to apply all EU law in common with other members (the European Communities Act 1972). Changing attitudes may also be seen among the judiciary.

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT

Acts of Parliament are laws or statutes that have received the approval of Parliament (the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons).They are the most important sources of the constitution.

TREATIES

Treaties don’t automatically become incorporated into UK law, though they are still binding on the UK in international law. Important treaties have been incorporated into domestic law by means of Acts of Parliament.

EU LAW

• EU law appears as simply a subcategory of international law that depends for its effect on a series of international treaties

• EU law represents a new legal regime which is different from other forms of international law and which takes precedence over the internal legal and constitutional arrangements of member states.

COMMON LAW

The United Kingdom uses the common law and civil law legal systems, court judgments also commonly form a source of the constitution.

CONVENTIONS

Many British constitutional conventions are ancient in origin. Such conventions aren’t formally enforceable in a court of law: they are primarily observed "because of the political difficulties which arise if they are not."

ROYAL PREROGATIVE

The royal prerogative is the collective name for a collection of powers belonging to the Sovereign which have no statutory basis. The Royal Prerogative is not unlimited: the Case of Proclamations (1611) confirmed that no new prerogative can be created and that Parliament can abolish individual prerogatives.

The extent of the royal prerogative has never been delineated, but it includes the following powers:

• The power to make war and peace• The power to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament• The power to regulate the Civil Service• The power to ratify treaties• The power to issue passports.

WORKS OF AUTHORITY

Works of authority are works that are sometimes cited as interpretations of aspects of the UK constitution, written by nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century constitutionalists.