lesson 4 and 5: principles of the UK constitution + what are the main sources of the UK constitution?

What are the 4 types of sovereignty?

Legal - highest legal power; held by government (parliament can suspend parts of the Human Rights Act if necessary)

Political - what is possible in practice (parliament wouldn’t scrap the Human Rights Act because they would face opposition if they did this)

Popular - the people’s will should be respected (most MPs wanted to stay in the EU but this could not happen because the majority of people chose to leave)

Pooled - sharing power with other organisations (when the UK was in the EU, it let EU laws apply in certain areas)

What is the difference between Sovereignty and Power?

Sovereignty - the legal right to do something

Power - what is possible to do in practice (changing something may be legal but not politically acceptable)

What are AV Dicey’s two ‘Main pillars’ of the UK Constitution?

Parliament Sovereign

The Rule of law

What are the 5 main sources of the UK constitution?

(Sandwiches, chicken and chips, tasty)

S statue law

C constitutional conventions

A authoritative works

C common law

T treaties

What is Statue law?

Law passed by Parliament that set up important constitutional (highest source of law in the UK)

What is special about UK constitutional statues?

They look exactly like normal laws. Parliament can change or scrap any of them at any time. In other countries constitutional laws are clearly separate and hard to change e.g the US

Example of statue law - equal franchise 1928 (women have equal voting rights as men)

What are constitutional conventions?

Unwritten rules that everyone in politics follows. Not legally enforced by socially accepted.

For example - collective responsibility (ministers must support the government in public or resign)