Unwritten Constitution Essay

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Recommended: Merits and demerits of codified constitution

Introduction
A constitution is a body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is acknowledged to be governed; regulating the relationships between and among institutions and defining the relationship between the individual and state. Constitutions can be federal, unitary, constitutional or unconstitutional and are flexible or rigid; and furthermore, written or unwritten; the most common when comparing classification. America is an example of a country with a codified constitution and the United Kingdom is an example of a country with an uncodified constitution. In this essay, I will discuss why I think the UK should not adopt a written constitution.

Unwritten and written constitutions …show more content…

A codified constitution would reduce the governments political power, effectively ending the principle of parliamentary sovereignty and subsequently elective dictatorship. It would remove executive dominance and constitutional imbalance in the governments need to win elections. An example of this is in the UK by the position of the Prime Minister and their Cabinets great power from the constitution because of their membership of both the Executive and the Legislature. In America, there is a clearer separation of powers and the President is only the Executive and his areas of influence are far less reaching. The existence of a higher law would also mean safeguarding of the constitution making it impossible for the government to interfere with and since senior judges will also police the written constitution it would allow for neutral interpretation, placing them above politics and identifying them as impartial constitutional …show more content…

To some extent the uncodified constitution has been adequate in reaching the requirements of a changing society without resorting to authoritarian governance which would suggest that the unwritten constitution has both handled the separation of powers and contains functional value. Since codified constitutions cannot be changed easily it would mean that changing social and political circumstances would prove very difficult to respond to and furthermore, many people believe that the unwritten constitution has worked thus far and ensured a long history of

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