Starting with what aconstitution is, the House of Lords Select Committee defined it in 2001; “the set of laws, rules andpractices that create the basic institutions of the state and its component andrelated parts, and stipulate powers of those institutions and the relationshipsbetween the different institutions and between those institutions and theindividual.
“1A constitution has three main roles first they establishthe authority and power of each political body, how they will relate to oneanother and how the relationship between them can be altered. For the UK, thisis where the separation of powers comes in. the bodies being; the executive(the government and civil service), the legislature (which makes laws but doesnot administer them) and the judiciary (which adjudicates what is lawful whenthis is disputed). Secondly, constitutions should define the rights andfreedoms of the individual. For example, the right to free speech, the right toliberty, or freedom from torture. Finally, a constitution should express theaims for the country’s society. The aim could be to be liberal and non-fascistas it is for Germany, or for the United States its “life, liberty and thepursuit of happiness”, although this appears in the declaration of independencenot in the US constitution itself. Â Althoughthe British constitution contains written sources such as statutes, it is oneof few in the world that is not codified into a single document, or collectionsof documents (Israel,New Zealand, Saudi Arabia (though the basic law of Saudi Arabia states that theQur’an is the constitution), San Marino and Canada also lack a single documentwhich outline a constitution).
However, the UK does have what is called anuncodified constitution, meaning that it is spread among many separatedocuments as oppose to just a single one. The Constitution of the UK is builtupon Acts of parliament, court judgement and other legal principles. Many basicrules which are part of the UKs constitution do not exist legally at all, andsimply rely on unwritten understanding or traditions. It is suggested that themain reason he UK does not have a codified constitution is because it lacks acritical moment in its history that would encourage the codifying of aconstitution, such as a revolution.
Theconstitution of the UK can be thought to be made up of many differentdocuments, some fundamentals can be seen in documents such as the Magna Carta1215, the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Human Rights Act 1998.The Britishconstitution can be seen to be made up from many different sources, fundamentals can be seen indocuments such as; theMagna Carta 1215, Human rights, the Bill of Rights 16882, the Constitutional ReformAct 2005, Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. Further principleswould be drawn from the rule of law, parliamentary supremacy and the separationof powers.
Also many principles arise from the continued development of commonlaw.1 https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/what-is-a-constitution2 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/introduction
