The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #78348   Message #1411249
Posted By: Cllr
15-Feb-05 - 08:09 PM
Thread Name: BS: Forthcoming UK election - important issue
Subject: RE: BS: Forthcoming UK election - important issu
Oh hang on, I just read Don's post We do have a written constition it is an uncodified constition but written never the less and to quote a book on constitution.

The following is paraphrased from an essay I wrote on the subject a few years ago. My source material "Politics UK" a Prentice Hall publication."A constitution can be defined as a system of laws,customs and conventions which defines the composition and powers of the organs of the state (such as government, Parliament,and the courts) and regulates the relations of various state organs to one another and of those state organs to the private citizen. The british constition differs from most in that it is not drawn up in a single codified document and as such it is described as an "unwritten" constitution However much of the constitution exists in "written" form. Many Acts of Parliament such as the Parliment acts 1911 and 1949 are clearly measures of constitutional law. Those acts constitute formal, written - and binding - documents. To describe the constitution as unwritten is thus misleading. Rather, what Britain has is a part written and uncodified constitution." Cllr