The British Constitution.

The British constitution is made statutes. A Statute is and Act of Parliament which is a law approved by parliament and is enforceable by the law courts. Statutes can change the constitution, but doesn’t have to undergo any special procedures to be made. Some of the most important statutes directly relate to the rights of citizens and how the country should be governed e.g. The Haebus Corpus Act (1679) which stated that anyone who has been arrested must be brought before a court for a just trial and The Devolution reforms for Wales and Scotland (1997-98) which allowed the two countries to have their own parliament. In theory, parliament can pass any law it wishes but because of the membership to the EU in 1972, European Law is binding on all member states and therefore takes precedence over domestic law.

Common Law is the law made by judges which have been gradually been accepted over a period of time. Much of the original law for civil liberties (e.g. publication, press and free speech) are all based on the common law. The rule in Great Britain is that if there isn’t a law against it, it must be legal.

Conventions are regularly observed practices but have no legal basis and are not enforceable in the courts. All states evolve around constitutional conventions if they are flexible enough. They are the generally agreed practices relating to the working of the political system. Democracy is based on the conventions of limiting the powers of the monarchy and giving them to the Prime Minister. There is no law saying there must be a cabinet, it only exists by convention. Some conventions of the British Constitution are; The Monarch must not refuse to assent to any law passes by two houses; The Housel of Lords pass financial bills without reviews and the Prime Minister fixes the date of an election and not the party.

The EU is a source of the modern constitution. If a legal dispute containing an EU reaches the House of Lords the final court of appeal, there must be an application for a ruling to the European Court of Justice. The introduction of the domestic Law of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) provides a further constitutional source.