Quote:
Originally Posted by MacShreach
The point I was attempting to make was that the UK (among others) lacks a single, formally codified document upon which to base it's laws. Unless Parliament lacks an understanding of the UK's legal framework, which I doubt, my point stands uncorrected:
The Constitution of the United Kingdom is an area of uncodified law, consisting of both written and unwritten sources. There is no technical difference between ordinary statutes and law considered "constitutional law". Therefore the Parliament of the United Kingdom can perform "constitutional reform" simply by passing Acts of Parliament and thus has the power to change or abolish any written or unwritten element of the constitution. The constitution is based on the concept of all sovereignty ultimately belonging to Parliament (Parliamentary sovereignty), so the concept of entrenchment cannot exist. The lack of a central written constitutional document explaining the fundamental principles of the state and relationship between its institutions and between the people leads some constitutionalists to regard the United Kingdom as having "no (formal) constitution". The phrase "unwritten constitution" is sometimes used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constit...United_Kingdom
Since wikipedia gets a lot of things wrong (an average of four facts per topic), I checked a few other sites:
There is no written constitution. The constitutional law of the UK is regarded as consisting of statute law on the one hand and case law on the other, whereby judicial precedent is applied in the courts by judges interpreting statute law. A third element consists of constitutional conventions which do not have statutory authority but nevertheless have binding force. Much of the relationship between the Sovereign and Parliament is conventional rather than statutory.
http://www.llrx.com/features/uk2.htm...Legal%20System
Perhaps something from Paliament's (specifically the House of Lords) Select Committee on Constitution would serve as a good source:
The essential characteristics of the United Kingdom's constitutional arrangements require some elucidation, partly because in the absence of a formal written constitution there are difficulties in clearly defining the powers of the executive and the role of the legislature and judiciary.
http://www.parliament.the-stationery.../168/16809.htm
As originally stated, the UK does not have a formal written constitution.
-Quinn