Unwritten Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Unwritten Constitution - Essay ExamplePaines definition of make-up is based upon 4 premises1.the constitution precedes and establishes the system of government2.the people are the superior authority3.the constitution binds the Legislature and the Judiciary4.it is entrenched, designed to square off the powers of the Executive, and can only be changed by special procedures.Wheare, (1966), defines a constitution asThe whole system of government of a country, the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government. The Select Committee on the Constitution appointed in 2001 uses the following working definitionThe set of laws, rules and practices that create the basic institutions of the state, and its office and related parts, and stipulate the powers of those institutions and the relationship between the different institutions and between those institutions and the individual. In most constitutions a concentration of powers is avoided by keeping the legislature , administrator and judicial powers separate. This ensures that authentic rights of the citizen are beyond the reach of the organs of government and are entrenched by requiring a special legislative procedure if they are to be amended. However, commentators in the UK prefer a wider definition. ... Further as Bradley & Ewing point outIn practice, a written constitution does not contain all the detailed rules upon which a government depends.6 The jurist and legal historian, Lord Hailsham believes that a written constitution is not necessary pointing out that The essential ingredientsare a strong executive based on an omnicompetent and elective legislatureregular electionspowerful and independent oppositionand limitedby convention and precedentand regulated more by checks and balances deriving from political constraints and necessities than by a written legal calculate policed by a Supreme Court.7It is misleading to refer to the British Constitution as unwritten from the Magna Carta to the Local Government Acts most of our constitutional law is contained someplace in the growing volumes of written Acts of Parliament.8 Hailsham sees no particular reason for a codified constitution since he argues thatThroughout our history, our Constitution has proved flexible, crude and almost infinitely capable of evolutionary adaptation. 9 The flexibility of an unwritten constitution allows the people to vote out the Executive when necessary and for majority rule. Countries with written constitutions suck in the equivalent of a Constitutional Court which has a remit to amend the constitution.10It is an axiom of our constitutional law that no parliament may bind its successor.A handed-down constitution, changing and evolving with the needs of a nation, may well prove more flexible and practical than the legal strait-jacket imposed by a written Constitution.11 As examples Hailsham looks at the first two articles of