BRITISH CONSTITUTION

Constitutions organise, distribute and regulate state power. They set out the structure

of the state, the major state institutions, and the principles governing their relations

with each other and with the state's citizens. Britain is unusual in that it has an

'unwritten' constitution: unlike the great majority of countries there is no single legal

document which sets out in one place the fundamental laws outlining how the state

works. Britain's lack of a 'written' constitution can be explained by its history.

In other countries, many of whom have experienced revolution or regime change, it

has been necessary to start from scratch or begin from first principles, constructing

new state institutions and defining in detail their relations with each other and their

citizens. By contrast, the British Constitution has evolved over a long period of time,

reflecting the relative stability of the British polity. It has never been thought

necessary to consolidate the basic building blocks of this order in Britain. What

Britain has instead is an accumulation of various statutes, conventions, judicial

decisions and treaties which collectively can be referred to as the British Constitution.

It is thus more accurate to refer to Britain's constitution as an 'uncodified' constitution,

rather than an 'unwritten' one.

THE TWO-HOUSE SYSTEM

The business of Parliament takes place in two Houses: the House of Commons and

the House of Lords. Their work is similar: making laws (legislation), checking the

work of the government (scrutiny), and debating current issues. The House of

Commons is also responsible for granting money to the government through

approving Bills that raise taxes. Generally, the decisions made in one House have to

be approved by the other. In this way the two-chamber system acts as a check and

balance for both Houses.

The Commons
The Commons is publicly elected. The party with the largest number of members in

the Commons forms the government.Members of the Commons (MPs) debate the big

political issues of the day and proposals for new laws. It is one of the key places

where government ministers, like the Prime Minister and the Chancellor, and the

principal figures of the main political parties, work.The Commons alone is

responsible for making decisions on financial Bills, such as proposed new taxes. The

Lords can consider these Bills but cannot block or amend them.Find out more about

the work of the House of Commons

The Lords
The House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK Parliament. It is independent

from, and complements the work of, the elected House of Commons. The Lords

shares the task of making and shaping laws and checking and challenging the work of

the government.

Anglo-Saxons Period

The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England. They traced their

origins to the 5th century settlement of incomers to Britain, who migrated to the

island from the North Sea coastlands of continental Europe. However, the

ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons occurred within Britain, and the identity was not

merely directly imported. The development of an Anglo-Saxon identity arose from the

interaction between incoming groups of people from a number of Germanic tribes,

both amongst themselves, and with indigenous British groups. Many of the natives,

over time, adopted Anglo-Saxon culture and language and were assimilated. The

Anglo-Saxons established the Kingdom of England, and the modern English language
owes almost half of its words – including the most common words of everyday speech

– to their language.

In the Kingdom of England, the Magnum Concilium, or Great Council, is an assembly

that was historically convened at certain times of the year when church leaders and

wealthy landowners were invited to discuss the affairs of the country with the king.

It was established in the reign of the Normans. In ancient times the king would call

the Great Council and the King's Court (Curia Regis), semi-professional advisors who

would stay behind until the work was done. The Great Council grew into the

Parliament (concilium regis in parliamento) and, especially as it split into the House

of Lords and House of Commons, thereby assumed the participation of the nobility.

In Plantagenet times the Magnum Concilium was a gathering of these aristocrats, who

advised the king when there was no issue that required hearing the commons.

Curia, also known as the Curia Regis, or Aula Regis (“King’s Court”). It was

introduced at the time of the Norman Conquest (1066) and lasted to about the end of

the 13th century. The Curia Regis was the germ from which the higher courts of law,

the Privy Council, and…

READ MORE

London: Houses of Parliament and Big BenIn Parliament: Historical development

…and ecclesiastical magnates, and the Curia Regis, or King’s Court, a much smaller

body of semiprofessional advisers. At those meetings of the Curia Regis that came to

be called concilium regis in parliamento (“the king’s council in parliament”), judicial

problems might be settled that had proved beyond the scope of…

The State of Law in Richard II

Although it is evident that Gaunt is expressing displeasure with Richard, the

substance of his complaint has not always been clear. A. P. Rossiter, for example, has

described the passage as "hopelessly obscure."2 At issue is the relationship between

king and law. To understand Gaunt's speech one must sort out the distinction the old

man is drawing between landlord and king. When this passage is glossed in modern

editions of the play, the readings nearly always suggest that the second line stands in

apposition to the first, presumably repeating in different words what the first line says.

A consequence of this assumption is the interpretation that Gaunt is accusing Richard,

as J. Dover Wilson says, of having "diminish the royal prerogative. " Citing J. C.

Smith, Wilson offers the following paraphrase of the second line: "Your legal status

as king ('in all causes supreme') is now amenable to the common law like that of any

other mortgagee." Similarly G. L. Kittredge, basing his reading on the glosses of

Samuel Johnson and Edmund Malone, writes, "Your legal status is no longer that of

supreme King of England by divine right; for you are now as subject to the law in

regard to the whole realm as any landlord is with reference to his private estate when

he has given a lease of it. ',4 The Arden, Pelican, and Riverside editions of the play all

offer essentially the same explanation.