Constitution of the United Kingdom

The constitution of the United Kingdom or British constitution comprises the written and unwritten arrangements that establish the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a political body. Unlike in most countries, no attempt has been made to codify such arrangements into a single document, thus it is known as an uncodified constitution. This enables the constitution to be easily changed as no provisions are formally entrenched; the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom recognises that there are constitutional principles, including parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, democracy, and upholding international law. The Supreme Court also recognises that some Acts of Parliament have special constitutional status, and are therefore part of the constitution. These include Magna Carta, which in 1215 required the King to call a "common counsel" (now called Parliament) to represent people, to hold courts in a fixed place, to guarantee fair trials, to guarantee free movement of people, to free the church from the state, and to guarantee rights of "common" people to use the land. (Most of Magna Carta is no longer in force; those principles it established that still exist are mostly protected by other enactments.) After the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Glorious Revolution, the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Claim of Right Act 1689 cemented Parliament's position as the supreme law-making body, and said that the "election of members of Parliament ought to be free". The Treaty of Union in 1706, followed by the Acts of Union 1707 (one by each national parliament) unified the Kingdoms of England (which incorporated Wales) and Scotland. Ireland joined in a similar way through the Acts of Union 1801. The Irish Free State separated after the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty took effect in 1922. Northern Ireland remained within the union. After a gradual process of electoral reform, the UK guaranteed every adult citizen (21 years or older) the equal right to vote in the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928.

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Related concepts (37)

Act of Parliament (UK)

An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is primary legislation passed by the UK Parliament in Westminster, London. An Act of Parliament can be enforced in all four of the UK constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). As a result of devolution the majority of acts that are passed by Parliament increasingly only apply either to England and Wales only, or England only. Generally acts only relating to constitutional and reserved matters now apply to the whole of the United Kingdom.

Parliamentary sovereignty

Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all other government institutions, including executive or judicial bodies. It also holds that the legislative body may change or repeal any previous legislation and so it is not bound by written law (in some cases, not even a constitution) or by precedent.

Catholic Church in England and Wales

The Catholic Church in England and Wales (Ecclesia Catholica in Anglia et Cambria; Yr Eglwys Gatholig yng Nghymru a Lloegr) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Its origins date from the 6th century, when Pope Gregory I through the Roman monk and Benedictine missionary, Augustine, later Augustine of Canterbury, intensified the evangelization of the Kingdom of Kent linking it to the Holy See in 597 AD. This unbroken communion with the Holy See lasted until King Henry VIII ended it in 1534.