Page 111 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes Now the question arises as to what is the sanction behind the conventions. When conventions are
unwritten rules unenforceable by the courts, why are they observed? Different theories have been
propounded in this regard which are correct in their own ways but which revolve round the fact
that conventions form the wrap and woof of the British constitutional system and provide the
lubricating oil which keeps the parts of mechanism well in operation. First, we take up the view
of eminent English jurist A.V. Dicey who holds” that there is an integral relationship between law
and convention as a result of which conventions are observed, otherwise sooner or later a violator
would find himself actually breaking a law. Dicey’s explanation is that conventions are so intimately
bound up with laws that if the former are violated, it naturally leads to the violation of the latter
as well.
The American writer Lowell holds a different view. He relies on the factors of public morality and
the force of tradition and public opinion. He does not dismiss the contention of Dicey but finds it
inadequate. In his view, many conventions may be broken or disrespected and there would be no
punishment as there is no violation of law. For instance, if a defeated Prime Minister does not
resign, he cannot be arrested and put before a magistrate for trial and eventual conviction. What
is more important is the force of public conscience which, in such a case, would result in the shape
of mass upheaval and compel the defeated Prime Minister to resign and go. Any undemocratic
behaviour of the House of Lords would open ways for further dimunition of its powers.
Another view is furnished by an eminent English writer, Jennings. He considers the government
functioning on a co-operative basis where the rules of law alone cannot provide for common
action. Both written and unwritten rules are followed because of the habit of the people to obey.
Thus, conventions are rules of political behaviour first established to meet with specific problems
and subsequently to be followed by the canons of expediency and reasonableness.
The fact is that now laws and conventions have become interwoven to constitute and keep into
operation the English constitutional system. They consist of understandings, habits or practices
which, through only rules of political morality, regulate a large portion of the actual day-to-day
relations and activities of even the most important of the public authorities. That is the reason
which prompts Ogg and Zink to say that conventions “clothe the dry bones of law with flesh and
make the legal constitution work and keep it abreast of changing social needs and political ideas.”
In fine, men work the Constitution to make it attain certain ends they deem desirable, the theory
is the expression of these ends. As Laski says: “But men regard constitutional principles as binding
and sacred, because they accept the ends they are intended to secure.”
Salient Features of the Constitutions
1. An Evolved Constitution
The fact that Britain does not possess a coherent, well-formulated and written constitution
does not substantiate the charge that ‘there is no constitution in England’. ‘The true position is
that the English constitution is a growth, not a make. It was never made in a way as the
American constitution was made by the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. In simple terms, it
means that it was never created by a stroke at any particular period of history. No constitution-
making body ever met to formulate the fundamental law of the English people; no monarch
proclaimed it as an instrument of government complete in all respects. And yet there is very
much a thing like the English constitution despite the obvious political fact that the English
“have left the different parts of their constitution where the waves of history have deposited
them; they have not attempted to bring them together, to classify or complete them, or make of
it a consistent and coherent whole.”
An exception to this can be found in the Instrument of Government framed in 1653. It was a
written constitution prepared during the period of Oliver Cromwell. Virtually, it provided the
model of a military government headed by the Lord Protector having several units under the
charge of his lieutenants. It, however, could not work well and with the restoration of monarchy
in 1660, England slid back into her traditional system of government.
The existence of the English constitution can be easily traced in its gradual change and
remarkable continuity. It has been likened with an ever-green tree bearing fruits and flowers in

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