The UK constitution

Statute Law 

• an Act of Parliament - outlines the distribution of government powers.
• The Acts of Parl 1911 - limited the power of the HOLs. 
• Other Acts outline our rights within a democracy (Representation of the People's Act)
• SL is regarded as taking precedent over all other sources (linked to parliament soverignty)
• Membership of the EU has limited the importance of SL.

Common Law

• Establishes the customs and precedents developed through the actions of judges
• a lot of original law concerning civill liberties and a good deal of consumers protection rights are done by common law
• the royal prerogative (power to declare war and treaties) is also based in CL.

Parliamentary Sovereignty

• Parl can make/unmake any law in the UK - Parl can legislate on any subject
• Only parl can make UK law - can make retrospective laws
• Parl cannot bind future Parls - cannot be overturned by any higher authoriy
• NOT rooted in statute law but common law

The rule of law

• No one can be punished without trial
• no one is above the law - all subject to the same justice
• the general principles of the Court (personal freedoms) result from the decisions of judges (case law), not from acts of statue or executive order

H - RAs

E - u - there's no threat as we've simply pooled our sov (Still in control) - we can leave whenever - more treaties = more power the EU has (Maastricht treaty)

D - evolution

E - xecutive Dominance - parl legally soverign but authority derives from the electorate - parl sov - not popular sov - fusion of power = gives Exec more power

R - eferendums

• provide legitmacy to those in power
• protect freedom
• encourage gov stability
• draw attention to the goals and values that characterises a particular state
• federal governments - spheres of influence
• create a fresh start

Treaties and EU law

• 1972 Eurpoean communities Act, European law and regulations were given precedence over our own national laws

Conventions

• tradtitions/customs that have evolved over time, will not stand in court

Works of authority

• Political books - A.V. Dicey's 'An introduction to the study of the law of the Constitution' 1883

Unitary state

• UK is unitary opposed to federal
• Ultimate power in the UK is held in the central government

The HOL should not vote down or wreck bills that seek to enact a manifesto commitments of the governing party

HRA

• estrinned most of the provisions of the ECHR in the UK law (right to life, liberty & security, fair trial and family life etc)
• change? derogation from Article 5 of HRA ('01-'05) was overturned. No Bill of Rights and duties were proposed but no legislation was introduced

Devolution

• involves the transfer of powers from central gov to subnational institution. UK = Quasifederal features
• change? Proposal for regional assemblies in England was dropped after '04, 'no' vote in referendums in NE England

Decentralisation

• elected mayor of London and London assemblies, elect mayors in some English areas
• change? Only 12 local authorities adopted the elected mayor model

Electoral reform

• New electoral systems of devolved assemblies, Europeans Parliament and elected mayors
• change? no action of 1998 - Jenkens report on electoral reforms for Westminister

• Not radical enough e.g. HOLs reform
• Devolution - still allows Scottish MPs to vote on English matters, creates differentiaion
• HRA - derogations - e.g. Anit Terrorism, Crime & Security Act 2001. Gives judiciary too much power - can almost make laws without any being passed
• Decentralisation - lack of support - only 12

• lacked coherence, said he'd do things then went back on them (referendum on PR) lack of interes

• More focused on changing parliament
• Giving more power
• Proposals were more intellectual coherence under Brown
• Proposals drive from the commitment of each 

• Limiting the powers of the executive - exec's power in appointing bishops and judges was reduced
• Making the executive more accountable - Constitution Reform Act '10 - created statutory basis for the civil service and laws
• Reinvigorating democracy - voting - produced little in practice - '10 election manifesto Labour promised to hold referendums on HOL and the voting system
• Addressing relationships between the citizen and the state - '09 'Rights and Responsibilites' Green paper was a low-key document with few real suggestions

• The Westministr model is no longer a satisfied term
• Reforms have been introduced that have added to/changed the key principles of the traditional constitution

Key principles of a tradtional constitution

• All of the major institutions have been affected by changes made
• moved from majoritarian democracy -> consensual democracy 

• Parl is soverign, fusion of powers and power centralised
• Our tradtional constitution

• Fixed term Parliaments Act (2011)
• The Wright committee on Reform of the HOC (2009) was fully accepted by the coalition gov, including enhancing backbench power by a Backbench Business committee
• The AV referendum was lost by 30% to 70% against
• Protection of Freedoms Bill - this sets out things such as; an end to ID cards, removing police stop & search powers, the protection of trial by jury, the strenghtening og the FOI Act, a reduction in pre-charge detention for terrorist suspect to 14 days
• A commission was created to investigate the case for a Bristish BoRs. This launched 18th March 2011. Final report came out Dec 2012 but said they could not agree on what to do