ILMI Warrior

  The Queen and the Crown The Queen or the King and the Crown should be clearly differentiated, for as Gladstone said, "there is no distinction more vital to the practice of the British Constitution than that which exists between the King and the Crown, between the Monarch as an individual and Monarchy as an institution.” Literally, the word “Crown” means something made of gold and jewels worn by a king. But in the language of the British Constitution, it means the sovereign powers, prerogatives and rights of the King exercised by his Ministers, Parliament or by some official of the State. In the sense, it is a subtle combination of the Sovereign Ministers (especially Cabinet Ministers) and, to a lesser extent, Parliament. Thus understood, the Crown is, as Sir Sidney Low said, “a convenient working hypothesis”, which enables the powers of the Queen to be exercised in reality by her Ministers. The King or Queen is only a human person, who dies and is succeeded by another, but ...

Salient characteristics or merits of the Constitution An Unwritten Constitution One of the most striking features of the British Constitution is that it is unwritten. It is, indeed, the only unwritten Constitution in the world today. In fact, this is the characteristic which made De Tocqueville to remark that “the English Constitution does not really exist." The Frenchmen,  like the Americans, are accustomed to written Constitutions in their country. Finding no such written document, they conclude that England has no Constitution at all. But, as we know, every State has a Constitution which defines the organization and powers of its various organs and departments. In this sense, there is a Constitution in England as in every other country. But it is not wholly unwritten. It comprises two parts. the written part which includes the three elements viz., the Constitutional Charters , the Statutes and the Judicial Decisions and the unwritten part which includes the ...

What is the sanction behind the Conventions? Different writers  have given different reasons as to why the Conventions are observed or  obeyed Conventions of the English Constitution? How do  these arise and why are these obeyed? Why is convention obeyed? According to Dicey, the Conventions are obeyed because these are indirectly sanctioned by the laws. In other words, the breach of a Convention will result in the violation of one or the other law of the Constitution, which will immediately bring the offender into conflict with the Law of the land and the courts. Suppose, for example, that the Parliament is not summoned for two years. Thus, the Convention that it must be summoned at least once a year is violated. If so, a law will be ultimately violated. There will be no Army Act or the Mutiny Act passed by Parliament and the Government will lose all disciplinary authority over the troops. No budget would be adopted and the government will have no money, for...

Convention is a rule of political behaviour, first established to cope with a specific problem, which becomes a precedent for all subsequent political actions and relations between various organs of the government. It is the unwritten rule of political ethics as sacred as law but not enforceable by the courts. Dicey has defined the Conventions as the "rules for determining the mode in which the discretionary powers of the Crown ought to be exercised." Ogg defines Conventions as "understandings, habits or practices or usages or customs which, by their sole authority, regulate a large proportion of the actual day—to—day relations and activities of even the most important of the Public Authorities." The uniqueness of the British Constitution is that it is run by Conventions more than most other written Constitutions. Though these Conventions are unwritten, yet these are understood with great exactness and followed scrupulously by the Ministers and others. CONVEN...

It comprises the following elements or ingredients, which, taken as a whole, makes, what we call the Constitution of the Great Britain. Great Charters and other Constitutional Landmarks These include such Charters, petitions, Statues and historic documents which embody solemn agreements at the time of great political struggles and crises or changes. These are the Magna Carta (1215) the Petition of Rights (1628), the Settlement Act (1701), the Great Reform Act (1832), the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, etc. These were not passed in normal times, and not even by normal legislative procedure, but as a result of a political struggle. The adoption of each of them proved to be a turning—point in the constitutional history of the country, when some new constitutional principle or institution was established or began to evolve Nearly a thousand years of such struggles and crises have made this Constitution what it is today. Statutes or Acts of Parliament  These are the o...

The Constitution of Great Britain has always been a topic of controversy among the constitutional writers. Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous French writer, once remarked, "Em Angle Terre la constitution, elle n'existe point"-- "In England there is no constitution." De Tocqueville was led do this conclusion, because he was familiar with regard a document properly adopted, as a constitution, which British Constitution isn't. It is a singular Constitution because it's unwritten: extremely flexible: evolved, mostly by parliamentary enactments and Conventions; and not safeguarded by a special body, such as the law courts, but left to the free decisions of the legislature. DEFINITION OF ENGLISH CONSTITUTION These and other features of British Constitution make it a difficult constitution to explain in print. It is a living reality, constantly changing and evolving under its internal pressures and external forces. It is, as Jos...