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Unit 6: Socio-Economic Bases and Salient Features of the Constitutions

settlement between the monarch and the people which occurred at various stages of Notes
constitutional development.
2. Great Statutes: Numerous laws passed by the Parliament define the principles of organisation
and working of British political institutions. They grant authority, establish administrative
agencies, and lay down their tenure and jurisdiction. For instance, the Parliamentary Reform
Acts of 1832 and 1867 ending with the People’s Representation Act of 1970 determine franchise
and regulate elections in the country. The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 establish the
supremacy of the House of Commons over the House of Lords. The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679
secures personal liberty against arbitrary detention. The Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1876
provide for judicial organisations and procedure. Thus in Britain constitutional principles can
be distilled from numerous important statues. The Statute of Westminster of 1931, the Abdication
Act of 1936, the Ministers of the Crown Act of 1937 and the Peerage Disclaimer Act of 1963 may
be mentioned as other leading instances in this regard. All these statutes are very important for
the development of political democracy and any attempt to repeal them would be considered
as unconstitutional.
3. Judicial Decisions: Another source is to be found in the decisions of the judges. While deciding
cases, the judges interpret, define and develop the provisions of the great charters and statutes.
They fix the meaning and the scope of the formal laws of the constitution. For instance, in the
Case of Impositions (1606) the court defined the scope of arbitrary power of the Crown to impose
duties for the regulation of trade. Likewise, it was reaffirmed in a modern case (Attorney
General vs. De. Kayser’s Royal Hotel Ltd. Case of 1920) how the discretionary powers of the Crown
are limited by a statute conferring similar authority. The independence of jury was firmly
established in the famous Bushell’s Case of 1670. In Eton’s Case of 1815, the court was called
upon to interpret Art. II of the Bill of Rights (the dispensing power as it hath been assumed and
exercised of late) and decided that the expression did not apply to a general dispensation for
which there was a precedent in the times of Queen Elizabeth I. The great text-books and
commentaries written on the country’s constitutional law by men like Sir Edward Coke and
Blackstone have also contributed to clarify and fix the meaning and limits of important
constitutional principles. In a good number of cases the courts have upheld the sovereign
position of the Parliament. It may, however, be pointed out that the task of interpretation for
the courts is based on the principle that their duty is to ascertain the true meaning of the words
used by the Parliament and that the policy of the Act and the intentions of the law-makers are
irrelevant except in so far as they have been expressed in the words used therein.
4. Common Law: Several matters of great constitutional importance are covered by the principles
of common law. It is from these principles that the prerogatives of the Crown, the privileges of
the members of Parliament and the liberties of the people flow. The origin of common law
dates back to the fourteenth century when the courts began to lay down case law. They claimed
authority to state the law at a time when the meetings of the Parliament were brief and infrequent
and statute-making was in a stage of infancy.
The courts exercised their independent role as time went on, often subject to coercion by the
Crown. But the judges stated the law as in their authoritative books or according to custom or
good sense and equity. Thus, they created new traditions and judicial precedents. They gathered
and reconciled many local customs and composed their own resultant jurisprudence, the law
common to the whole country: hence there grew a term common law. Side by side with the
common law, there developed equity through the courts of Chancery division. Thus, from the
principles of common law and equity many subtle adaptations in the governmental system
were made. But it should be remembered that since there is legislative sovereignty in Britain,
principles of both common law and equity hold good until the Parliament passes a statute on
the same subject.
5. Conventions: However, the most important feature of the British constitution rests not upon
formal law as upon the usages and customs technically called the ‘conventions’. These usages
are the unwritten rules of political practice and they have been defined by John Stuart Mill as
‘unwritten maxims of the constitution’. The most curious thing in regard to constitutional

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