The Written Constitution

The current public debate concerning the need or desire for a written constitution for the United Kingdom is in its fourteenth year (Howe, 1993). During the past 14 years, events in many instances have made moot some of the arguments for constitutional reform for the United Kingdom, as well as rendering obsolete some proposed constitutional models (Jones, 2003).

This paper considers some of the more important of the claimed advantages and disadvantages of a so-called written constitution, together with an assessment of the current status and form of the constitution of the United Kingdom. Based on the considerations and assessment, conclusions are drawn concerning the need or desirability of developing and adopting a written constitution for the United Kingdom.

Written and Unwritten Constitutions and the Constitution of the United Kingdom

There are several defining guidelines that may be applied in differentiating national constitutions from one another. One of the defining guidelines is the written-unwritten dichotomy (Barnett, 2002). Put most simply, a written constitution is a single document (short or long) with the word "constitution" and the name of a nation in its title. The Constitution of the United States of America is an example of such a document.

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titution in the United Kingdom One of the most frequently cited disadvantages of having an unwritten constitution in the United Kingdom are the capacity of a prime minister with a strong and loyal parliamentary majority to thwart the national will (Barnett, 1994). The national will frequently is hard to define in the absence of controversy. When the current government under the leadership of Prime Minister Blair disregarded a strong majority of public opinion opposing the war on Iraq by joining the United States in the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, there were renewed calls from opponents for further constitutional reform in the United Kingdom (Gelb, 2003). The objective of such constitutional reform would be to curtail the power of the Parliament to act as it sees fit regardless of what the national will may be. Constitutional reform of this type, however, might not produce the results hopes for by proponents. The United States is a good example. The Constitution of the United States grants the Congress the exclusive power to declare or make war. This provision of the American constitution, however, has not stopped any president in the past 50 years from sending American military forces into combat whether or not
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Approximate Word count = 2283
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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