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

response to the climatic conditions, or it has been described as a living organism ever-growing Notes
and functioning without having sudden leaps or suffering from unexpected breaks. It may be
called the lengthened shadow of the English people in as much as it well represents the gradually
changed character of the English political system of a traditionally conservative nation. Leaving
aside the only exception of the Protectorate Period (1649-60), the English people have never
shown themselves as volatile as the people of France who switched over from monarchy to
popular government and then swang back to an autocracy under Napoleon Bonaparte. The
Glorious Revolution of 1688 can be cited as an example when the English people invited Mary
and William to ascend the throne after King James II escaped - an event that laid down the
foundations of constitutional monarchy. The stubborn attitude of the Lords as displayed by
them in 1909 led to the passing of the Parliament Act of 1911 that virtually clipped the wings
of upper chamber of the Parliament; the insistence of King Edward VIII on marrying Lady
Simpson led to his peaceful abdication in 1936. As accidents have occurred, so the wisdom of
the English people has shown itself in dealing with the problem of change. Thus, the English
constitution is described as ‘a product of accidents and designs’, or ‘a child of chance and
wisdom.’
The result is that the English constitution has a different nature. It “is like a maze in which the
wanderer is perplexed by unreality, by antiquarianism and by constitutionalism. James Bryce
calls it “a mass of precedents carried in men’s minds or recorded in writing dicta of lawyers or
statesmen, usages, understandings and beliefs, a number of statutes mixed up with customs,
and all covered with a parasitic growth of legal decisions and political habits.” It is by all
means a continuously changing blend of the ancient and the modern and herein lie the secrets
of its strength. It is owing to this that the governments have been permitted to rule effectively
without allowing them to govern for long in an arbitrary and irresponsible manner, disregarding
the wishes at least of the more powerful and articulate sections of the government. Besides, no
rigid constitutional or political orthodoxy has been able to ossify the institutions of government
and it “has not been necessary totally and swiftly to reorganise them at the cost of destroying
established habits of thought, behaviour and sentiment.”
2. An Unwritten Constitution
The British constitution is the model of an unwritten constitution. Its written part is limited to
some important charters signed by the monarchs, statutes passed by the Parliament and decisions
given by the courts. The larger part of the constitution is unwritten as it is available in the form
of numerous usages and customs. A list of constitutional documents should be referred to in
this connection having leading instances like those of the Magna Carta of 1215, Petition of
Right of 1628, Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, Bill of Rights of 1689, Act of Settlement of 1701, Act
of Union of 1707, First Reform Act of 1832, Second Reform Act of 1867, Third Reform Act of
1884, Parliament Act of 1911, Statute of Westminster of 1931, Abdication Act of 1936, Ministers
of the Crown Act of 1937, Peerage Disclaimer Act of 1963, Representation of the People Acts of
1918, 1928 and 1970 etc.
The bulk of the English constitution is contained in the form of usages, precedents and customs
what Mill has termed the ‘unwritten maxims of the constitution’ and Dicey denominated them
as ‘conventions of the constitution’. These customs relate to the office of the monarch, the
Prime Minister and his Cabinet, the Parliament and the Commonwealth of Nations. We have
already dealt with their meaning, leading instances and the reasons behind their observance.
What is relevant for our purpose at this stage is to point out that these well-established practices
having no written form of their own constitute an integral part of the English constitution and
since they constitute the bulky part of the English constitution, they render to it the character
of an unwritten constitution.
The unwritten character of the English constitution has created the anomaly of something in
theory and something else in practice what is sometimes described as its ‘penchant for disguises’.
It is due to this that ‘nothing is what it seems to be or seems to be what it is’. Several instances
may be given to corroborate that it is characteristic of the English constitution that forms and
symbols continue to exist, while the spirit behind them has been completely transformed.

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