Introduction:
The United Kingdom's constitutional arrangements are essentially
political in nature as opposed to being based on a legally binding
formal (or codified) constitution.
The political nature of the
arrangements continues to be true even though there are a number of
"constitutional" Acts of Parliament such as those creating devolved
legislatures / government for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
One consequence of the political nature of the arrangements is that
conventions play a considerable part by setting out the usual course of action to be adopted in particular situations. Conventions are not rules of law and the courts, whilst recognising their existence, do not enforce them.
It will suffice to give three examples of conventions -
1. By
convention, Royal Assent is not withheld for a bill which has
passed through all its parliamentary stages.
2. By convention, the Monarch appoints as Prime Minister the individual who
appears most likely to be able to command a majority in the House of
Commons - normally the leader of the political party which has gained
the most seats at a general election.
3. The so-called
Sewel Convention is to the effect that the UK Parliament will not normally legislate for devolved matters without the consent of the devolved legislature - see
Miller 1 [2017] UKSC 5 at paras 136 to 151. At para 151 the court stated - " ... we do not underestimate the importance of constitutional conventions, some of which play a fundamental role in the operation of our constitution. The Sewel Convention has an important role in facilitating harmonious relationships between the UK Parliament and the devolved legislatures. But the policing of its scope and the manner of its operation does not lie within the constitutional remit of the judiciary, which is to protect the rule of law."
Reform:
The absence of a formal constitution has the result that
