...The British constitution is becoming increasingly codified. Discuss. (25 marks) The British constitution as it stands is currently an uncodified constitution, this means that the basis of the UK consititution is drawn from a number of several different cources, some of which are written and some of which that are not,for example the main sources of the British constitution are: major consititutional documents, works of authority, conventions, statute law, European law, and common law. There is no one singular written constitution. This would be a codified constitution where all of the laws and rules of authority are written in one unified document, this form of constitution is, for example, within use in the USA. Although the British constitution is an uncodified one presently, it can be argued that it is becoming increasingly codified for several reasons. One of these reasons is due to the effects of our membership as a country in the EU, as of 1973. One of the effects that took place in UK politics after joining the EU was the introduction of the 1998 Human Rights Act. This would enshrine the already present convention within UK law, but would also effectively replace much of the common law within respect to various freedoms for the countries population, (for example the freedom from arrest without trial, which would later result in tension over terrorism and attempted terrorism, and the freesom of speech assembly). The introduction of the Human Rights Act in the UK increased...
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...Should the British constitution remain an uncodified constitution? The definition of a constitution is the set of rules that outline the fundamental principles, laws or policies, in a country according to the government. There are various features that create a constitution for example, they can be seen as rigid or flexible. Flexible meaning that laws can be easily changed, whereas rigid they have to go through a lengthy process involving some form of referendum. However, the feature I am analysing is whether the British constitution should be codified or uncodified. The UK is an example of an uncodified constitution. Uncodified means that, unlike other democratic constitutions, it has not been brought together into one single document. Should Britain codify their constitution similarly to almost every other constitution? A codified constitution means the constitution is all collected in one single document, it is commonly known as a written constitution. One hand there are arguments supporting the view that the UK should adopt a codified constitution. If it were to be introduced there is an argument that it would make the rules clearer. If they are in a single document, there are more clearly understood and create less confusion as they aren’t spread across several different documents. Another argument for codified constitution is that it would undermine the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. The government could not interfere with the constitution if it was codified...
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...The US Constitution and Bill of Rights were revolutionary since they changed a lot of things that favored the development of America and protected the citizens' rights. We could realize that by taking a look at the America today because these documents have affected the evolution of America. According to Digital History, the result from these documents are phenomenal, "the United States has been radically transformed over the past two centuries. Its population has soared from just 4 million to nearly 300 million. The federal budget has risen from $4 million in 1790 to over $1 trillion today" 1. The most important thing that they are still using the same governed structure stated by these documents even now 2. The US Constitution was established to create and change the governmental system by eliminating the monarchical society, and the Bill of Rights was a shield that helped people to prevent any downfall from the US Constitution. Both of them were the main factors to cut off the appearance of British government, reduce the overuse of power, and create the new and better governmental system....
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...The new Labour government took power in 1997 began to reform the British constitution, introducing the Human rights act, Devolution and some reform of the House of Lords among other less important changes. Unfortunately Labour did not complete those reforms and a great deal was left undone. The question since then is how much has the constitution been reformed and how positive effect these reforms have had. There is no doubt that the HRA has transformed Britain. It created a means by which government and other bodies could be prevented from abusing our rights. The courts were given powers to enforce rights. This has meant that we now have more privacy and have the right to be treated equally under the law. However, the HRA was not made biding on Parliament and so governments can still abuse rights. This has been seen with anti-terrorism acts which give the police great powers including the ability to arrest suspects without trial. The HRA also does not protect us against the growth of surveillance and stop search powers or the prevention of some demonstrations. Similarly, the FOI act has been partly effective as it enabled us to know about the MP’s expense scandal and other aspects of government. However government can still conceal sensitive information thus perhaps the act should have been stronger. The introduction of Devolution as well supported in Scotland and Wales has made a huge difference in those countries as well as in Northern Ireland, the people of those countries...
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...Bogdanor and S Vogenauer; Enacting a British Constitution: some problems’, 2008. One must understand that most of the countries now have a written and a codified Constitution, such as the United States of the America, Malaysia, India, Australia and etc. As we know these countries are under the British colonies before getting their independence. Hence now there are only three states in the world which lacks a written constitution, namely Britain, New Zealand, and Israel. A constitution is a set of rules which defines the structures and functions of a state, particularly, will define the principle of institutions, the legislature, the executive, judiciary and the nature and the scope of their powers. Moreover, Bradley and Ewing have defined a constitution as ‘ a document having special legal sanctity which sets out the framework and the principle functions of the organs of government within the state and declares the principles by which those organs must operate’. (A Bradley and K Ewing, Constitutional and Administrative Law (14th edn, Pearson/Longman, 2007), p.4) [1]In the introduction of a state’s constitution, there will be a discovery of a preamble, for example, in the USA the preamble states that: ‘We the people...do ordain and establish this Constitution’. (Article 2 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution.)[2] This shows the society as a sovereign power. An important question that often rises is “Should Britain adopts a written constitution”? This has always been the topic of debate...
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...Using your own knowledge as well as the extract identify and explain two sources of the British constitution (10) A constitution is a framework of rules that dictate the way a country is run, it defines the relationship between the state and individual and also the way in which power is divided between the various parts of the state, for example between the house of commons, the house of Lords and parliament. There are different types of constitutions, the most basic way of dividing constitutions is placing them into two groups; codified (written in one single document) for example in the USA and uncodified (unwritten, no single, formal document) in the UK. One source of the British constitution is statute law, this is law that is written down and codified into law. Statutes begin as bills: there are public and private bills. Public Acts are those that affect either the whole of the UK or some of its constituent countries; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whereas private Acts may grant limited powers to public bodies such as local authorities (councils), or apply only to specific locations within the UK. To begin with, a bill is scrutinised and then refined if needed before the final draft is created. Then it is given its first reading, and after its second reading there is a general debate as to its contents. Once at the ‘Committee stage’ both the House of Commons and the House of Lords may make amendments to it. Then further amendments may be made when it...
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...The British constitution has become increasingly codified, discuss. A constitution is a set of rules that defines the manner a country is run. The British constitution is said to be an unwritten constitution, more accurately it is uncodified as much more of the British constitution is written down, however, they are not all written down in a single document like a codified constitution would require as how the US is, however draws from several different sources such as; statutes laws, common law, conventions, EU laws, authoritative documents etc. Statute law, is a written law passed down by parliament for example the human rights act of 1998 which brought the European convention on human rights into British law, conventions is another source of the British constitution, they are unwritten laws considered binding on members of the political community for example the Salisbury convention which made sure that the house of lords does not obstruct proposals contained in the governments most recent manifesto. Has the British constitution become increasingly codified? Its not the case that the British constitution is being written in a single document but in fact that more of the constitution is being written down as there is increasingly more written statutes that have great constitutional impacts as they are passed by parliament making them more rigid therefore harder to change as parliament has ultimate sovereignty, however you could say the EU laws are exempt from this,...
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...A long time ago, Americans were under British rule, and did not have as much independence as nowadays. The British forced many things upon the Americans, or colonist, and treated them with very little respect. The colonist wanted a new way of living. One day they broke free from the British rule through a long hard fought war and seeked a better government. They than thought it was in their best interest to write about their new government down, so they wrote the Articles of Confederation. After they tested out their new style of government, they realized it was inefficient and not working well. They than needed a new government style, so they decided to hold the Constitutional Convention to provide written rules about a new government that would fix their...
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...Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution were created to address various issues of their time periods. These issues primarily revolved around the government because the government is what controlled everything else. The Declaration of Independence was written in response to the awful ways in which the colonists were being treated by the British, the Articles of Confederation were created to eliminate the British rule that dreadfully governed the colonies, and the United States Constitution was created to organize a strong central government, something which the Articles of Confederation failed to do. With the passing of the Tea Act by...
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...1. The Constitution: a. Provide a topic sentence that briefly describes one strength and one weakness of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution provides the foundation for a central government with authority to regulate interstate disputes and commerce, This enforces citizens' rights and defend from hostile forces. However, it is too vague to provide definitive interpretations. It can be amended, but the process is slow. Citizens vote for representatives directly but don't get a direct vote on policies. b. Provide a topic sentence that recommends one option to maintain the strength and one to correct the weakness. c. Provide two sources in APA format to support your main points. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_history.html a. Briefly discuss how these sources support your main points. It supports my main points not from by what I already knew, but from what I was taught while in high school. Main Point: A strength and weakness of the British constitution. 1a. The British constitution has many strengths and weakness that make their political system unique. One unique major strength is that the British constitution is based on over 800 years of common law, customs, and conventions and one unique major weakness is that it is not a formal written constitution, like the U.S. Constitution. 1b. A way to enhance the strength and correct the weakness of the British constitution is to capture and summarize the 800 years laws, customs...
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...Great Britain as listed in the Declaration of Independence and how the United States fixed them in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The thirteen American colonies of Great Britain revolted and declared independence for good reason. The actions of the British government (the king) deprived Americans of numerous rights that were guaranteed to all other British citizens. In fact, many of these rights were guaranteed as early as 1215—since the American colonists were British citizens, they had good reason to expect those rights to be recognized. They weren’t, and in 1776, the American colonies declared independence and became the United States of America. When Americans wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they made sure to fix the problems. Grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence (1776) Why they were a problem… How they got fixed… The king exercised absolute power. The power of British kings had been limited since 1215—almost 400 years before the first American colony was settled. The US Constitution divides power among three branches of government, and there are checks and balances to make sure that no single branch gets too powerful. Colonials were taxed without their consent. British citizens were represented in Parliament; American colonists were not represented in Parliament, even though they were British citizens. The US Constitution gives Congress the power to tax US citizens, and US citizens are represented in Congress by representatives...
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...Canada Constitution vs Unites States Most countries around our world for the most part have a constitution for people to live by or another resource laying out the freedoms for the citizens for the countries. A Constitution of course is the foundation for one’s country that he or she lives in. The constitution or other government rules lay the foundation for the government as well as the citizens that reside in the country. This is especially true for the lands of America and the Monarchy of the providence of Canada. Both nations citizens live by the rights of each constitutions everyday even though in some cases our rights are not always treated as a nation of free people should be. Of course the United States and Canada have different freedoms than other lands but, these freedoms and rights for both countries were not easily achieved wars were fought and to many people died for the cause on both sided of the wars for the lands. The United States constitution was written in 1787 between May and September after the American colonies citizens won their independence from the British rule of the king and queen. The men who wrote the constitution were called the framers, they met and discussed what would be in it which some of the things were not put in it and the articles. There were 55 Framers of the constitution. Among them some familiar names as George Washington, James Madison, Benjamin franklin, alexander Hamilton which he invented the first national bank for the United...
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...A constitution is a set of rules which may be written or unwritten, establishes the distribution of power in a political system, the limits of government jurisdiction, the rights of citizens and the method of amending the constitution itself. An uncodified constitution is unwritten, or at least not written all in one document. The constitution in the UK is found in a variety of sources, which are mainly statute and common law, conventions and traditions, European law etc. The British constitution itself is flexible as it allows the constitutions to evolve and generally adapt to the changing society. Compared to the US whose constitution is described as ‘rigid’; through the struggle of being able to amend constitutions; for example, the ‘right to bear arms’ amendment, which basically gives registered citizens the right to keep and bear arms. The topic of amending this constitution is very controversial, however due to the constitution being codified the process is very difficult, as is it entrenched and has been a part of the US culture for centuries. In this essay, I will be analysing the strengths of the British constitution and comparing it to a codified constitution, Some of the arguments for retaining the uncodified system are that; codification produces ‘judicial tyranny’, uncodified constitutions are more flexible and lastly that an uncodified system has worked well in the UK for many years and broadly speaking not many people have protested against an uncodified system...
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...1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese army. The main aim of the Japanese was to establish a New Great East Asia government. The Japanese promised to declare independence in certain South East Asian countries. The Japanese Victory The Japanese military conquered Malaya quite easily although the British military was equipped with better firearms and were greater in number than the Japanese There are a few lessons to be learnt from this. 1. The British were not prepared for the war. They did not anticipate the Japanese attack from the north. 2. The fact was the Japanese had a comprehensive plan in which they had a network of spies in Malaya. 3. In addition to that, the Japanese soldiers were in excellent form because of intensive training and were led by capable and experience leaders (such as Yamashita and Tsuji). 4. The Japanese were enthusiastic and inspired to fight for the importance and supremacy of Japan. 5. Furthermore, they had practical war tactics, such as using the bicycle even in the jungles and villages. 6. The British military on the other hand, lacked the spirit f war, especially after the first round of attacks. 7. Also, a large number of the British soldiers consisted of Indians who were still young and inexperienced in warfare. * All...
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...Currently Britain as most of its European counterparts adopts an uncodified constitution, such a constitution is derived from a number of sources and is favoured for its ability to evolve and mould to suit the pragmatic nature of British politics. In the US however a codified constitution is adopted which originates from a single written source, its clarity and rigidity prevents the formation of an elective dictatorship and is therefore preferred. The pragmatic capability of a flexible uncodified constitution allows government to act efficiently and decisively to implement changes in reaction to a major event in which its’ peoples’ lives are endangered. The immediate aftermath of 9/11 resulted in an alteration of the Human Rights Act by British government increasing the length of time a suspected terrorist could be detained without charge, which occurred with relative ease. The rigid nature of the US codified constitution hampered US government attempts to achieve similar constitutional changes due to the fact that it required two-thirds support by both Houses of Congress and three-quarters from each state legislature. Therefore Britain should not adopt a codified constitution as it would prevent the political system from responding adequately to new situations. The formation of an uncodified constitutions allows strong Governments’ to implement pledges made to the electorate made in its’ election manifesto without interference from other political institutions as long as such...
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