An Introduction to Law: Key Principles of the UK Constitution

This essay provides a comprehensive introduction to the UK constitution, which is unwritten but based on various documents, customs, and precedents. It explores the three main principles that shape the UK's legal and governmental structure: separation of powers, parliamentary supremacy (sovereignty), and the rule of law. The essay examines how these principles function in practice, including the roles of the executive, legislature, and judiciary, and how they interact within the UK system. The discussion of separation of powers highlights the overlapping functions of the state's organs, with specific examples. The concept of parliamentary supremacy is explained, emphasizing the parliament's ability to create or amend laws. Finally, the essay details the rule of law, its origins, and its significance in restricting arbitrary government actions and ensuring justice. The essay concludes by summarizing the flexibility and the challenges associated with the UK's uncodified constitution.

INTRODUCTION TO
LAW

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Separation of Powers...................................................................................................................3
Parliamentary Supremacy(Sovereignty).....................................................................................5
Rule of Law.................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
A constitution in every country is a form of a legal document which governs all the
affairs of the country and is considered as the most important law in any country. The
constitution can be of two types either written or unwritten. The written constitution means
where there is a single legal document which regulates all the affair of the country and every law
passed should come within the purview of that document. Whereas the unwritten constitution
which is also known as an uncodified law means where there is not any single legal document
for governing purpose and all the matters are governed with the help of various customs,
precedents and international treaties. This type of constitution is dynamic in nature and its easy
to do constitutional reforms in it.
As United Kingdom's constitution is also unwritten because there is not any single
document to govern the country but the law is based upon such as customs, precedents, acts
passed by the Parliament, fundamental principles of law, treaties etc.
Many things makes a significant impact upon the constitution of UK while discharging
various functions of the state such as Separation of Powers, Rule of Law and Supremacy of
Parliament which are discussed below.
MAIN BODY
Separation of Powers
In every country there are majorly 3 organs of the state that are Executive, Legislature
and Judiciary. The term “Separation of Powers” means that all the powers of executive,
legislature and judiciary has been separated and all these organs should not encroach the
functioning area of other. Each of these branches will have their separate roles and
responsibilities assigned to them(Fahey, 20180). Practically it is not possible for any country to
do a strict interpretation of separation of powers and while discharging the function some
functions has to be done by people who are part of more than one organ. The same thing applies

in the case of UK also where the executive includes the Monarch and the government whereas
legislature includes the Monarch and both the houses of Parliament(House of Commons &
House of Lords). The main function of the executive is to implement the policies in the country.
The legislature of any country discharges its function by passing various legislations as per the
need. Here Crown is the part of both executive and legislature so the strict interpretation of the
doctrine is not possible. Regarding judiciary, it is responsible for protecting the rights of its
citizens which includes various courts and tribunals which are supervised by the Supreme Court
but here also the appointments of judges in Supreme Court is done by Monarch only(Gordon,
2016).
In UK there is not a proper system of separation of powers because each organ of the
state overlap the other in one or other way. For instance as government is the member of both the
executive as well as legislature so there is a possibility that the executive will hold a dominating
position over legislature because technically to legislate the law is the function of the Parliament
but in practical situation as the government will be having the majority in the House of
Commons, the executive will try to pressurise to implement laws as per their want( Gelter,
2016).
However executive also dominates the judiciary in some ways such as appointment of
senior judges which are done by Crown on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. But as the
judges are appointed for their lifetime, it is not in the hands of them to remove the judges which
is feature of independence of judiciary.
However Constitutional Reforms Act, 2005 is a major legislation which ensured the
division of powers and also strengthen the Independence of Judiciary. This act mainly dealt
with the three major issues which are Role of Lord Chancellor, Establishing a Supreme Court
and Appointment for Judges. The functions discharged by the Lord Chancellor was amended
and by this act Lord Chancellor's responsibilities remained limited to the functioning of the
judicial system in the country. Also through this act the the House of Lords was abolished as a
court and a separate Judicial Appointments Commission was formed for the appointment of
judges. It also states that Supreme Court will consist of 12 Judges for their lifetime(Jones, 2020)
(Lakin, 2018)(Loveland, 2018)(Young, 2016)( Gelter, 2016).
Independence of Judiciary means that other organs of the state will not interfere in the
functioning of the state. Also in UK the power of Judicial Review has been given to Supreme

Court to review the laws made by the parliament to ensure Checks and Balances over other two
organs. Independence of judiciary also ensures the protection regarding the protection of eights
of people.
Parliamentary Supremacy(Sovereignty)
Parliament of UK is given such a power that it can create or end any law. The Supremacy
of the Parliament is the basic principle of the Constitution of UK. Generally when the court give
any judgement it can't be overruled easily whereas the laws passed by the parliament can be
amended or changed by the future parliament. Majority of the people are of opinion that the UK's
constitution is unwritten but in reality it is written down in the legislations passed by the
Parliament so it can be said that the constitution of UK is partly written but wholly uncodified. It
can be said that there are 3 principles of sovereignty of parliament that are “Parliament can
legislate law on any matter”, “No parliament can bind the future parliament” and “Law
passed by the Parliament cannot be challenged anywhere”(Lakin, 2018).
Earlier when the UK was the part of European Union, The European Communities Act.
1972 was passed by the UK parliament to give the precedence of Law of European Union over
the UK law. UK parliament has not passed such a legislation for implementing any international
law.
Getting Royal Assent is an important part in passing legislation in UK. After getting this
assent only any bill will become an act. There will be an announcement in both the houses after
getting the Royal Assent(Loveland, 2018).
Rule of Law
The first case regarding the Rule of Law is Magna Carta in UK in the year 1215. This
“Rule of Law” was coined by Sir Edward Cokes. This is the most fundamental principle on
which the UK constitution is based which is Rule of Law which states that “Nobody is Above
Law”. The Dicey has given three principles regarding the same which are:
1. That a man can be punished only when he violates the law.
2. That equity come before the Law
3. That constitution is developed in such a way so that it should protect the rights of the
individuals.

The various elements of Rule of Law which are impacting the Constitution of UK are
“Equality Before Law”, “Separation of Power”, “Independence of Judiciary”, “A Formal System
of Courts” and “ Abhorrence of Arbitrary Power”.
The main function of this rule is to restrict the government in taking arbitrary decisions
and forces them to ensure the Principles of Natural Justice while discharging its
functions(Young, 2016).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded by the above study that the Constitution of the UK is a uncodified
constitution which has been written in various documents. UK is few of the countries in present
times which follows this type of constitution. Its constitution ensures the supremacy of the
Parliament and also has enacted certain legislations to enforce the separation of powers in an
efficient manner by following rule of law. The major advantage of having this type of
constitution is it flexibility and can be changed as per the societal needs easily. Whereas the
major drawback is that it is very difficult to determine the state of the constitution so anything
can be changed just with a simple majority. Now a days it can be said that it is not an unwritten
constitution but an uncodified one due to passing of various legislations but not having a set of
single document.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Fahey, E., 2018. Introduction to law and global governance. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Gelter, M., 2016. EU Law with the UK-EU Law without the UK. Fordham Int'l LJ. 40. p.1327.
Gordon, M., 2016. Brexit: a challenge for the UK constitution, of the UK constitution? European
constitutional law review,12(3). pp.409-444.
Jones, B. C., 2020. A single written UK constitution may only make things worse.
Lakin, S., 2018. The Manner and Form Theory of Parliamentary Sovereignty: A Nelson’s Eye
View of the UK Constitution?. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 38(1). pp.168-189.
Loveland, I., 2018. Constitutional law, administrative law, and human rights: a critical
introduction. Oxford University Press.
Young, A., 2016. M Gordon: Parliamentary sovereignty in the UK constitution. Public Law,
2016.
(Fahey, 20180(Gordon, 2016)(Jones, 2020)(Lakin, 2018)(Loveland, 2018)(Young, 2016)
( Gelter, 2016)