The UK Constitution is no Longer Fit For Purpose. Discuss.
The UK Constitution is no Longer Fit For Purpose. Discuss. [40]
The UK constitution has always stood out from the crowd of many democracies around the world due to its uncodified nature. Some see the UK constitution being uncodified as a weakness, where human rights are not adequately protected and where power lies in the hands of one institution, rather than an irrefutable document. Others see this uncodified constitution as a positive, providing an evolutionary and flexible constitution that can mold and shape itself with great efficiency to what modern rights and freedoms citizens can come to expect,
There is an argument that the UK constitution is indeed not fit for purpose. The UK constitution by its very nature is abstract, opaque and has myriad sources. Acts of Parliament that are seen to be important Acts are made part of the uncodified constitution. An example would be the Human
Rights Act of 1997, a key constitutional Act of Parliament, outlining the rights of citizens and visitors to the UK. Concurrently, conventions also become part of the Constitution. Conventions are merely traditional rules that have been observed and have no legal weight whatsoever. They are part of the Constitution however because of how important they are to the political dynamic of the UK. An example of a key convention would be the convention of Individual Ministerial
Responsibility, where a minister should resign their post should they involve themselves in something that brings the Government into disrepute, such as a sex scandal. These conventions however are just ‘the done thing’ and there is nothing to force the minster to resign under such circumstances.
The result of this constitution from many different aspects of law and tradition is that politicians themselves and more importantly, the General Public, do not fully understand what the constitution of the country they live in contains. Thus, a key part of the freedom people in the UK enjoy could be argued to be being
The UK constitution has always stood out from the crowd of many democracies around the world due to its uncodified nature. Some see the UK constitution being uncodified as a weakness, where human rights are not adequately protected and where power lies in the hands of one institution, rather than an irrefutable document. Others see this uncodified constitution as a positive, providing an evolutionary and flexible constitution that can mold and shape itself with great efficiency to what modern rights and freedoms citizens can come to expect,
There is an argument that the UK constitution is indeed not fit for purpose. The UK constitution by its very nature is abstract, opaque and has myriad sources. Acts of Parliament that are seen to be important Acts are made part of the uncodified constitution. An example would be the Human
Rights Act of 1997, a key constitutional Act of Parliament, outlining the rights of citizens and visitors to the UK. Concurrently, conventions also become part of the Constitution. Conventions are merely traditional rules that have been observed and have no legal weight whatsoever. They are part of the Constitution however because of how important they are to the political dynamic of the UK. An example of a key convention would be the convention of Individual Ministerial
Responsibility, where a minister should resign their post should they involve themselves in something that brings the Government into disrepute, such as a sex scandal. These conventions however are just ‘the done thing’ and there is nothing to force the minster to resign under such circumstances.
The result of this constitution from many different aspects of law and tradition is that politicians themselves and more importantly, the General Public, do not fully understand what the constitution of the country they live in contains. Thus, a key part of the freedom people in the UK enjoy could be argued to be being