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Concept
Constitution of the United Kingdom
Summary
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 (Most of Magna Carta is no longer in force; those principles it established that still exist are mostly protected by other enactments.)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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