Registration Number: 13002967
Module: Constitutional and Administrative Law
Period: Jan 2014
What have the events around the Uk’s decision not to participate in international action against Syria demonstrated about the nature of the UK constitution and the respective roles of the executive, parliament and the judiciary?
Examining the UK constitution seems to never stop, the constitution of the UK is always assessed and being analyzed, as well as the English system itself, whether the powers are separated? Is the Parliament supreme? Etc... It is asked in this essay to expound what is reflected about the essence of the constitution and the system of the UK for not participating in international action against Syria. In process of doing so, several sources of books, articles, and websites will be used in order to result with a clear conclusion about the nature of such decision. A simple conclusion would state; In the UK sovereign powers are granted to the parliament therefore nothing can be done or made without parliamentary approval. But is this the case?
Initially, a fair assessment of the constitution’s statue is desired. A constitution is the superior law in any country, it defines the nature of the state, the governmental purposes, the rights of citizens, etc... Usually it is written making it very easy to reach and entrench but in the UK the constitution is not, nor codified, in a different way it is a group of constitutional customs in
Britain which the government, parliament, and the judiciary follow. Being in such manners the procedure of entrenching is considered impossible, which clarifies the reason behind the unavailability of suggestions of entrenching it, worth noting that the UK’s constitution is perceived as a flawless entity regardless of being neither written nor possible to entrench “If it is not broken, don’t fix”. The UK constitution is also supreme where the legislative powers are the highest in the state. As well it is a
References: 1-Hilaire Barnett, Constitutional & Administrative Law (1st published 1995, 10th edition, 2013) 8,13 2-Neil Parpworth, Constitutional & Administrative Law (7th edition, 2012) 72 3-UK parliament, “Chapter 3: Parliament 's role” (2013) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldconst/46/4606.htm accessed Jan, 17 2014