SALIENT FEATURES OF BRITISH CONSTITUTION

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United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, and north east Ireland.

Great Britain include England, Wales and Scotland

United Kingdom



MOSTLY UNWRITTEN

Most important and unique feature of British Constitution is its unwritten character. There are no such written documents which we may called British Constitution. According to De Tocqueville,” English Constitution does not really exist. The main reason for this is that it is based on convention and political tradition which have not been laid down in any document.

PARTLY WRITTEN

However, it has some written parts too which includes Historical Documents, Parliamentary Statues, Judicial Decisions and Constitutional Characters, eg Magna Carta (1215), Petition of Rights (1628), Bill of Rights (1689), Parliamentary Act of 1911&1949) etc.

EVOLUTIONARY CONSTITUTION

British Constitution is not enacted by any constituent assembly and not a fixed date of birth given to this because it is an evolutionary process which produce growth and development to convention, political culture, document and decision. This development came gradually followed by thousand years of continuity.

FLEXIBLE CONSTITUTION

British Constitution is an example of pure flexible constitution. It can be passed and amended by simple majority of Parliament. And there is no distinction between constitutional law and ordinary law. Because of this character it gradually changes itself with the needs of time.

UNITARY CHARACTER

British Constitution has unitary in character because all powers vested in the hand of British Parliament which is a sovereign body. The executive organs of state are subordinate to it and exercise delegated powers and are answerable to it. There is only one legislature.

PARILIAMENTARAY SYSTEM

England has Parliament form of govt. The king is sovereign has been deprived of all his powers. The real functionaries are Ministers who belongs to the majority party in parliament and remain in office as long as they retain its confidence. The Prime Ministers and his ministers are responsible to the legislature for their act and policies. In this system the executive and legislature are not separated as in federal form of govt.

RULE OF LAW

It implies equality or all before supremacy, uniformity and universality.  It has three implications:

•        All persons are equal before law irrespective of their position or rank.

•        This doctrine emphasizes the supremacy of law and not of any individual.

•        No one can be detained or imprisoned without a fair and proper trial by a competent court of law.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE

There is a great gap between theory and practice in English political system. This fact is because unwritten character of constitution, which is mainly based on convention. In theory King or Queen is sovereign but in practice Parliament is sovereign. The King or Queen can’t veto any bill passed by parliament.

MIXED CONSTITUTION

The British constitution is a mixture of the monarchical, aristocratic and democratic principles. The institution of kingship shows that there is monarchy in England. The existence of house of Lords gives an idea that England has aristocratic type of govt. The house of commons reflects actual working of democracy in this country.

INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIARY

Judiciary is independent and separated from govt. This will facilitate the rule of law. This will ensure that the law is enforced impartially. It was based on tradition unless the constitutional reform Act 2005

Bi- PARTY SYSTEM

The British Political system is a two-party system. Great Britain has two successive two-party alignments: conservative and Liberal prior to 1914 and conservative and Labour since 1935. Britain’s conservative party is actually a conservative-liberal party, resulting fusion of these two parties.

CONCLUSION

British constitution is very unique in the sense that maximum provision is based on customs and not in written form. Its political system is mixture of many systems and at the end they meet into representative democracy.

 



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