UK

What might a British constitution look like?

July 24, 2007
Placeholder image!

As the spectre of a European constitution treaty is once again raised, Gordon Brown's ascendancy to the premiership has breathed new life into the old, and mildly musty, question of whether Britain needs a written constitution. Harriet Harman, deputy Labour leader, and Jack Straw, the minister responsible for constitutional affairs, have in recent months both come out in favour of a written document, and Brown himself has made favourable noises. Anthony Barnett, the founder of the pressure group Charter 88 which campaigns for a written constitution, is optimistic.

In the June issue of Prospect, Robert Hazell, director of the Constitution Unit, was sceptical about the need for a written constitution, arguing that there was little public demand for such a huge project, and that it would do "nothing" to restore public trust in the political process. But a month later, David Marquand responded that the piecemeal reform of the Blair years had led to a clumsy "ad hoc miscellany," and that the only way to fix Britain's broken constitution was to write it down in one place.

What might such a document look like? Earlier this year, Vernon Bogdanor, constitutional expert and professor of government at Oxford, convened a seminar at which students attempted to draw together the constitutional elements of current British law into a single document. This "constitution of the United Kingdom" was published by the Smith Institute—click here [PDF] and scroll down to page 152 to read it.

UK