The British Constitution is often described as being monarchical, and that it possesses a constitutional monarch as the Head of State, rather than an elected President, and Unitary with power focus at the center, rather than shared as it would be in a federal system. As I mentioned earlier, although the British Constitution does not exist as a single document, many of the various sources which make up the constitution, can be found in written form. These sources include the following: Statutes or Acts of Parliament, which you will learn more about on week four. Judicial Decisions or common-law, which can be found in the law reports, and which will have been discussed in week one. European and International Law, at least this is currently the case. Royal or Crime Prerogative, which is a particular type of common law. Constitutional Conventions and Constitutional Principles. Statutes. It is important to understand, that not every statute or act of parliament forms part of the constitution. But rather this is days of constitutional significance or importance. Such as those acts of parliament which govern the relationship between the branches of government, or between the station and citizens. Perhaps, they're setting out the protection of rights and liberties, which are considered to be a source of the Constitution. Those statutes or pieces of primary legislation, which were described by Justice Laws, and able to dictate in the case of Thoburn, as being constitutional, as it pays to ordinary statutes. Common law. Similarly, it is any judicial decisions or common law, dealing with matters of constitutional importance, which are a source of the constitution, rather than for example, the decision of a Magistrates Court on a road traffic matters, such as speeding. An interesting example of a case of constitutional importance in relation to the rule of law and individual rights, is Entick and Carrington. In this instance, Entick is publishing political pamphlets, which were critical of the government of the day. The government wanted to prevent this. So Government Minister, acting in an executive capacity, arranged for some kings messengers, essentially, government officials, including Carrington, to search Entick's property, sees his papers and arrest him. On his release, Entick sued Carrington, and the other messengers for trespass. The defendant's attempted to justify the legality of the Secretary of State's warrant. Unable to find specific authority in law, they claimed that such warrants had frequently been issued in the past, and that the power of seizure was essential to government. The court rejected this defense, and tell that there was no lawful authority for the warrant. Constitutional conventions. Constitutional conventions are particularly interesting component or source of the constitution, and perhaps also one of the most difficult to identify. These are sometimes described as the unwritten maxims of the constitution, or in Tompkins words, "non-legal but nonetheless binding rules of constitutional behavior." In recent years, it has become increasingly the case that conventions are indeed written, although notably not codified. Many important constitutional conventions, can now be found in documents such as the Ministerial Code and the Cabinet Manual. Jennings described constitutional conventions as "The flesh which clothes the dry bones of the law." In other words, conventions work alongside the law. For example, the exercise of illegal prerogative powers that are retained by the monarch in practice are clearly governed by, or controlled by the existence of constitutional conventions. An illustration will hopefully help you to understand, how conventions operate in practice. In legal terms, the Monarch could refuse to grant the Royal Assent to a Bill, but by convention, the Royal Assent will never be refused, when a bill has passed both the Houses of Parliament, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords. The Royal Assent is the final stage in the legislative process, by which draft legislation bills become law acts, before an act of parliament comes into being. The last time a British monarch withheld Royal Assent was over 300 years ago. The rule say, important constitutional principles, upon which the British constitution rests. These foundational or fundamental concepts, and lead parliamentary sovereignty, and the rule of law, and to a lesser extent, the partial separation of powers. It is these constitutional principles, which form the next section of the week's content.
