Public Law - Reform of the UK constitution revision notes (semester 1)
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Course
Public Law (LAW106)
Institution
The University Of Liverpool (UoL)
Document containing all the relevant information about the topic, condensed into colour coded tables to enable easier memorisation and order. I achieved a first class in public law using these notes.
POLITICAL REFORM OF THE The UK’s constitution is referred to as having flexibility due
CONSTITUION to it being uncodified so there is no special amendment
process, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the
constitution will change, it is just open to the possibility of
change
In reality most changes are a one-off change in
reactive to certain circumstances
Example: parliament acts 1911 (in
response/reaction to take away the HOL power to
veto legislation as they were obstructing a
governments budget) and 1949 (in response to the
HOL being mostly conservative so needed to be
limited to not block the labour gov from passing
legislation)
Brazier described politicians as ‘the midwives of
constitutional change’ as ‘reform cannot come about
unless a political party delivers it while in government’
NEW LABOURS APPROACH TO REFORM THE CONSTITUTION
NEW LABOUR’S PRO-ACTIVE New labour elected to power in 1997 under Tony Blair had
ERA OF REFORM formed a detailed plan of reforms when they were not in
government to change the system
Aimed to modernise and re-invent Britain
Labour came into power with ideas of exactly what
they wanted to do and enacted a lot of legislation
in a short time period
This shows how the UK’s constitution can be easily
changed as a consequence of it not being codified
THE ‘NEW LABOUR Central elements of the constitution created under the
CONSTITUTION’ new labour gov:
, Reform of the UK constitution
Devolution – gave power to Scotland, Wales, and
NI
HRA – made European Convention on Human
Rights rights legally actionable in UK law
Removed most hereditary peers from HOL as it
was dominated by the conservative party but is
now a mix between many different political and
non-political parties
Freedom of information laws
Creating the UK supreme court in 2005 act
The consequences of the approach of new labour:
Proactive – plan to solve problems within the
constitution
Far-reaching – a lot of things were changed
Changed the modern constitution
Potentially created greater constitutional
consequences
Was it influential on other political parties to enact
periods of reform such as this or was it a one
off???
IMPLICATIONS OF THIS Overtime this may have been a gradual process of moving
PROCESS towards codification of the UK constitution as under the
new labour gov the constitution has become a lot more
written and has extended to a lot more statutes
However, there is still not direct movement towards
codification as it still not brought together in one single
coherent document
GORDON BROWNS When Gordon Brown came into power, suggested the idea
‘FLIRTATION’ WITH of a more written and clarified constitution for the UK
CODIFICATION which implies the movement towards codification
However, due to the 2008 financial crisis a written codified
constitution wasn’t of high priority, but it opened up the
possibility for this to happen in the future
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