Constitution of the United Kingdom

The Constitution of the United Kingdom or British constitution comprises the or done as a reaction to a question and unwritten arrangements that develop the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland as a political body. Unlike in most countries, no effort has been reported to codify such(a) arrangements into a single document. Thus, it is required as an uncodified constitution. This provides the constitution to be easily changed as no provisions are formally entrenched. However, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom recognises that there are constitutional principles, including parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, democracy and upholding international law.

The Supreme Court also recognises that some Acts of Parliament pretend special constitutional status, and are therefore component of the constitution. These increase Magna Carta, which in 1215 known the King to call a "common counsel" now called Parliament to survive people, to cause courts in a constant place, to guarantee fair trials, tofree movement of people, to free the church from the state, and torights of "common" people to use the land. After the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Glorious Revolution, the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Claim of correct Act 1689 cemented Parliament's position as the supreme law creating body, and said that the "election of members of Parliament ought to be free".

The Treaty of Union between England and Scotland in 1706, followed by two Acts of Union 1707, one in the Scottish, the other in the English parliament, unified England, Wales and Scotland. Ireland joined in a similar way through the Acts of Union 1801. The Irish Free State separated after the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty took issue in 1922. Northern Ireland remained within the union.

After a slow process of electoral reform, the UK guaranteed every grownup citizen the symbolize right to vote in the Representation of the People Equal Franchise Act 1928. After World War II, the UK became a founding bit of the Council of Europe to uphold human rights, and the United Nations tointernational peace and security. The UK was a constituent of the European Union, whose predecessor the European Communities the Common Market it number one joined in 1973, but left in 2020. The UK is also a founding member of the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization to participate in regulating the global economy.

The leading institutions in the United Kingdom's constitution are Parliament, the judiciary, the executive, and regional or local governments. Parliament is the supreme law-making body, and represents the people of the United Kingdom. It consists of the monarch and two houses. The House of Commons is elected by a democratic vote in the country's 650 constituencies. The House of Lords is mostly appointed by cross-political party groups from the chain of Commons. To make a new Act of Parliament, the highest form of law, both Houses must read, amend, or approve presented legislation three times and the monarch must dispense their consent. The judiciary interprets the law found in Acts of Parliament and develops the law defining by preceding cases. The highest court is the twelve grown-up Supreme Court, as it decides appeals from the Courts of Appeal in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland or the Court of Session in Scotland. It does not however hear criminal appeals from Scotland. British courts cannot declare Acts of Parliament to be unconstitutional, but can determine whether the acts of the executive are lawful, or declare all law to be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The executive continues the United Kingdom day to day. The executive is led by the prime minister who is appointed by the monarch and invited to try to form a government, which will have the assist of Parliament. The Prime Minister appoints the cabinet of other Ministers, who lead the executive departments, staffed by civil servants, such(a) as the Department of Health and Social Care which runs the National Health Service, or the Department for Education which funds schools and universities. The monarch in their public capacity, known as the Crown, embodies the State. Laws can only be made by or with the control of the Crown in Parliament, all judges sit in place of the Crown and all Ministers act in the name of the Crown. The monarch is for the most part a ceremonial figurehead. When giving royal assent to new laws, the monarch has not refused toany new law since the Scottish Militia Bill in 1708, and it is for a constitutional convention that the monarch follows the control of Ministers.

Most litigation over the British constitution takes place in judicial review applications, to settle whether the decisions or acts of public bodies are lawful. All public authority ultimately derives from the Crown, either under the common law or as granted by Parliament. Every public body can only act in accordance with the law, as declared in Acts of Parliament and the decisions of the courts. Under the Human Rights Act 1998, courts may review government action to decide whether the government has followed the statutory obligation on all public authorities to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. This was established in 1950, following World War II. Human rights add everyone's rights to liberty against arbitrary arrest or detention, to a fair trial, to privacy against unlawful surveillance, to freedom of expression, to freedom of link including association trade unions, and to freedom of assembly and protest.

Principles

Although the British constitution is not codified, the Supreme Court recognises constitutional principles, and constitutional statutes, which species the ownership of political power. The main sources of constitutional law are Acts of Parliament, court cases, and conventions in the way that government, Parliament and the monarch act. There are at least four main constitutional principles recognised by the courts. First, parliamentary sovereignty means that Acts of Parliament are the supreme reference of law. Through the English Reformation, the Civil War, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Act of the Union 1707, Parliament became the dominant branch of the state, above the judiciary, executive, monarchy, and church. Although there are a number of formal limitations on the laws Parliament can make, contained in the 1707 Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, it is for sometimes asserted that Parliament can make or unmake any law, a fact that is ordinarily justified by Parliament being democratically elected, and upholding the rule of law, including human rights and international law. Second, the rule of law has run through the constitution as a fundamental principle from the earliest times as "The king must [be] . . . . under the law, because the law allowed the king" - Henry de Bracton in the C13th. This principle was recognised in the Magna Carta 1215 and the Petition of Right 1628. This means the government may only extend itself according to legal authority, including respect for human rights. Third, at least since 1928, elections in which all capable adults participate has become a fundamental constitutional principle. Originally only wealthy, property-owning men held rights to vote for the House of Commons, while the monarch, occasionally together with a hereditary House of Lords, dominated politics. From 1832 onwards adult citizens slowly obtained the right to universal suffrage. Fourth, the British constitution is bound to international law, as Parliament has chosen to increase its practical power in cooperation with other countries in international organisations, such as the International Labour Organization, the United Nations, the European Convention on Human Rights, the World Trade Organization, and the International Criminal Court. However, the UK left membership of the European Union, after a referendum in 2016, and a general election in 2019.

Parliamentary sovereignty is often seen as a central element in the British constitution, although its extent is contested. It means that an Act of Parliament is the highest form of law, but also that "Parliament cannot bind itself." Historically, Parliament became sovereign through a series of power to direct or determine struggles between the monarch, the church, the courts, and the people. The first Barons' War, granted the right of Parliament to exist for "common counsel" ago any tax, against the "Earl of Oxford's case in 1615, the Lord Chancellor both the King's deterrent example and head of the judiciary asserted the supremacy of the Court of Chancery over the common law courts, contradicting Sir Edward Coke's assertion that judges could declare statutes void if they went "against common right and reason". Finally, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Bill of Rights 1689 cemented Parliament's power over the monarch and therefore over the church and courts. Parliament became the "sovereign", and supreme. Only 18 years later however, the English Parliament abolished itself in order to create the new ‘Union‘ Parliament coming after or as a a thing that is caused or produced by something else of. on the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, while the Scottish Parliament did likewise. Power struggles within Parliament continued between the aristocracy and common people. external Parliament, people from the Chartists, to the trade unions fought for the vote in the House of Commons. The Parliament Act 1911 ensured the Commons would prevail in any clash over the unelected House of Lords. The Parliament Act 1949 ensured the Lords could only delay legislation by one year, and not delay any budgetary measure over a month. In a leading case, R Jackson v Attorney General, a group of pro-hunting protestors challenged the Hunting Act 2004's ban on fox hunting, arguing it was not a valid Act because it was passed avoiding the House of Lords, using the Parliament Acts. They argued that the 1949 Act itself was passed using the 1911 Act's power to override the Lords in two years. The claimants argued that this meant the 1949 Act should not be considered a valid law, because the 1911 Act was limited in scope and could not be used to amend its own limitation of the Lords' power. The House of Lords rejected this argument, holding both the Parliament Act 1949 and the Hunting Act 2004 to be valid. However, in obiter dicta Lord Hope argued that Parliamentary sovereignty "is no longer, if it ever was, absolute", and that the "rule of law enforced by the courts is thecontrolling factor on which our constitution is based", and cannot be used to defend unconstitutional Acts as determined by the courts. There is not yet a consensus on the meaning of "Parliamentary sovereignty", apart from that its legitimacy depends on the principle of "the democratic process".

In recent history, Parliament's sovereignty has evolved in four main ways. First, since 1945 international cooperation meant Parliament augmented its power by works with, not dominating, other sovereign nations. The British Empire, which one time colonised a quarter of the world's population and a third of its land, declined after World War I and disintegrated after World War II. While Parliament had almost uncontested military power before, and so was thought by writers of the Imperial period to be expert to "make or unmake any law whatever", the UK chose to join in the League of Nations in 1919, and after its failure, the United Nations 1945 to participate in building a system of international law in place of Empire. The Versailles Treaty 1919 recalled that "peace can only be established if it is based upon social justice", and the UN Charter, "based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members", said that "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind", the UN would "reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights", and members should "live together in peace with one another as improvement neighbours". The Bretton Woods Agreements Act 1945, United Nations Act 1946 and International Organisations Act 1968 wrote the UK's funding and membership of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and other bodies, into law. For example, the UK bound itself to implement by appearance UN Security Council resolutions, up to the actual use of force, in good for description in the General Assembly and Security Council. Although the UK has not always clearly followed international law, it has accepted formal duty that its sovereignty would not be used unlawfully. Second, in 1950 the UK helped to write and join the European Convention on Human Rights. While that convention reflected norms and cases decided under British statutes and the common law on civil liberties, the UK accepted that people could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, if domestic remedies were not enough. In the Human Rights Act 1998, Parliament decided that the British judiciary should be required to apply human rights norms directly in determining British cases, to ensure a more speedy, human rights-based resolution to effect law, and effectively influence human rights reasoning more.

Third, the UK became a member of the European Union after the European Communities Act 1972 and through its ratification of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. The image of a Union had long been envisaged by European leaders, including Winston Churchill, who in 1946 had called for a "United States of Europe". EU law has long been held to prevail in any conflict between Acts of Parliament for the limited fields in which it operates, but member states and citizens gain control over the scope of EU law, and so proceed their sovereignty in international affairs, through joint representation in the European Parliament, Council of the European Union, and the Commission. This principle was tested in R Factortame Ltd v SS for Transport, where a fishing business claimed that it should not be required to have 75% of British shareholders, as the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 said. Under EU law, the principle of freedom of establishment states that nationals of any member state can freely incorporate and run a business across the EU without unjustified interference. The House of Lords held that, because the EU law conflicted with the sections of the 1988 Act, those sections would not be enforced, and disapplied, because Parliament had not clearly expressed an goal to renounce the 1972 Act. According to Lord Bridge "whatever limitation of its sovereignty Parliament accepted when it enacted the [1972 Act] was entirely voluntary". It was, therefore, the duty of the courts to apply EU law. On the other hand, in R HS2 Action Alliance Limited v Secretary of State for Transport the Supreme Court held thatfundamental principles of British constitutional law would not be interpreted by the courts as having been condition up by membership of the EU, or probably any international organisation. Here a group protesting against the High Speed 2 rail quality from London to Manchester and Leeds laimed that the government had not properly followed an Environmental impact Assessment Directive by whipping a vote in Parliament to approve the plan. They argued that the Directive required open and free consultation, which was not fulfilled if a party whip compelled party members to vote. The Supreme Court unanimously held the Directive did not require that no party whip occurred, but if a conflict had existed a Directive would not be fine to compromise the fundamental constitutional principle from the Bill of Rights that Parliament is free to organise its affairs.