LAWS08123 Public Law of UK and Scotland Summary-What is a constitution, Study notes of Public Law

Download LAWS08123 Public Law of UK and Scotland Summary-What is a constitution and more Study notes Public Law in PDF only on Docsity! PUBLIC LAW OF THE UK AND SCOTLAND What is a constitution? In its narrower meaning, a constitution means a document having a special legal status which sets out the framework and principal functions of the organs of government within the state and declares the principles or rules by which those organs must operate. In its wider meaning as Bolingbroke stated in 1733: By constitution we mean, whenever we speak with propriety and exactness, that assemblage of laws, institutions and customs, derived from certain fixed principles of reason, directed to certain fixed objects of public good, that compose the general system, according to which the community hath agreed to be governed. In more modern terms: the whole system of government of a country; the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government. Sources of the constitution By source we mean the formal origin of a rule which confers legal force upon that rule. Sources include (a) the constitution itself, (b) Acts of Parliament with a constitutional importance (c) judicial decisions interpreting the constitution (inclusive of CJEU decisions in interpreting community law). HC can refer bills of constitutional significance to the committee for the whole house rather than a select committee, for detailed examination.