Sources and Evolution of the British Constitution: Written Laws and Unwritten Conventions, Schemes and Mind Maps of French

Download Sources and Evolution of the British Constitution: Written Laws and Unwritten Conventions and more Schemes and Mind Maps French in PDF only on Docsity! Sources of the British constitution Introduction. “The British constitution is the child of wisdom and chance.” There can be no state without a constitution. The constitution consists of fundamental rules which determine and distribute functions and powers among the various organs of the government as well as determine the relations of governing authorities with the people. Most of the modern constitutions are written, the British constitution is the only constitution which is unwritten. Lord Bryce wrote: “British constitution works by understanding which no writer can formulate. “ French writer De Tocqueville once remarked: “England has no constitution,” Because he did not found it in a written form. But the British constitution is the chief model for all the countries. It has shown a unique ability to adopt without violence. Sources: The sources of the British constitution can be divided into two parts: > The laws of the constitution > The conventions of the constitution A) The laws of the constitution: The laws of the constitution are based on the written documents. These include Historic documents, acts of the parliament, judicial decisions and common laws. 1. The Historic constitutional documents The historic constitutional documents form a very important source of the British constitution. The importance of these documents can be judged from the fact that the transition process from absolute monarchy to constitutional government in Britain was triggered by these elements e.g.: > Magna carta (1215) > The petition of rights (1628) > The bill of rights (1689) etc. 2. The acts of the parliament: The laws made by the parliament from time to time have also contributed and furthered the transition to constitutional government in Britain e.g. > The act of Habeas corpus (1679) > The act of settlement ( 1701) > Reform acts of ( 1832,1867,1884,1918,1928) > Acts of parliament ( 1911, 1949) > Indian independence act of 1947 etc. 3. Judicial decisions: These are also important sources of the British constitution. Judicial decisions