Does the Uk Has a Constitution

This assignment is designed to provide a clear explanation of two statements such as: (1)�it is as false to claim that the United Kingdom does not have a constitution’ as (2)�it is to claim that the constitution that the United Kingdom does possess is uncodified’”. In other words to consider whether the UK have a constitution; if yes, what kind of a constitution the UK possesses. To answer these two statements one should define the meaning of a constitution and its purposes; what are the differences between written and unwritten constitutions; whether the British constitution is uncodified or codified.

Each country has a government that it is governed or arranged by set of rules that is known as a constitution. There are many definitions of a constitution. Professor Alder believes that �a constitution provides a framework of rules that creates the structure and functions of a human organisation’ . In this context a human organisation means a state. Judge Laws asserted the definition that a constitution is �set of rules which governs the relationship in a state between the ruler and the ruled’.

The main purpose of any constitution is to provide protection for the individuals and their rights from abuses of the ruler and gives regulations on how to govern the individuals. Also the idea of a constitution is an idea of rules that define and legitimize governmental power. This kind of power goes to a state from a constitution. This means that usually a constitution is drawn up before a government is formed as a result of the constitution.

Many countries have a written constitution, such as the USA or France, in the form a written legal document where the states formulate and write down the important legal principles or system of rules which accurately defines the power and relationship between the branches of the state; and the relationship between the state and its citizens. For example, such constitution may be raised as a reaction of revolutions or from civil wars. It is known as the �written’ or �codified’ constitution, where the state tries to codify all rights between the ruler and the ruled. For these countries a constitution is the law which is subject to strict execution that it is legally binding.

According to T. Paine �A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is power without rights…’ In his point, it is clear that people create a constitution but not a government. Thus, a government which has not got a constitution, means that �…its power without rights…’ In this sense the UK does not a constitution . This is true that the UK has not a �written’ constitution; however, it has the government and the law.

T. Paine looked at a constitution in a sense of a codified constitution. Lord Bolingbroke looked at the British constitution by another way, as customary or practise, which is the kind of constitution the UK has. He had an idea that the British constitution is a collection of statutes, judicial precedents and political practices; that it does not have to be separated from the process of the government. This means that the government gives power with rights to the law where the law comes in a form of a constitution and gives power with rights to the government.

In Great Britain there is no �written’ or �codified’ constitution. The UK is different because there is a country with an �abstract’ constitution where no single document by which explains how the state should govern. However, the UK has a number of laws and customs which are a set of the constitutional laws which are provide the rules of power of relationship in the state. That has proved the existence of the British constitution. Also, according to Marshall, the UK has a constitution that it deals with �the combination of legal and non-legal…rules that provide the framework of government’ and it does not matter where these rules are contained, whether in the forms of legislation or case law, the main point is that the state is affected by �the totality of legal rules…’. The British constitution is regulated by the legal and non-legal sources of the constitutional law which define the rights and obligations of the ruler and citizens. The legal sources are: statutes which give power to the Westminster Parliament to legislate over its