Case Against the Adoption of a Codified Constitution in the Uk

Britain’s constitution has been built on common law, conventions, case law, historical documents, Acts of Parliament and European legislation. It is not set out in any one document therefore it is uncodified. Some people believe that codification should take place as it is difficult to locate their rights and civil liberties. However, there are many arguments against the adoption of a codified constitution in the UK;

Firstly, the uncodified UK constitution works well in practice and has done for thousands of years. Therefore, is there really a need to change it? It seems like a waste of time to fix something that isn't broken. Changing the constitution to become codified would be time consuming and expensive. It would be extremely difficult and would take a long time to establish set constitutional rules and public spending should be focussed on more important issues such as health and education. This could also cause political friction as it might be difficult to come to an agreement on which rules are necessary.

In addition, the United Kingdom has a system of government that adapts smoothly to changing social and political conditions due to the uncodified constitution. This is because the flexibility of the uncodified constitution allows for the constitution to be changed easily in times of emergency in order to react to certain situations. Whereas, a written, codified constitution, entrenching it’s institutions and rules, would be more rigid and difficult to change and therefore unable to adapt easily and quickly to changing circumstances.

There is an argument that by being able to change the uncodified constitution very quickly, the laws may not be very well thought out and could in-fringe the rights of the public, whereas a written, entrenched constitution places a higher emphasis on rights. However, some people may argue that our rights are well protected under an uncodified constitution and that ease of change allows new rights to be included with changes in society, for example, the legalisation of gay marriage.

Some people may also argue that the UK constitution is old fashioned compared with most other democracies, due to the existence of undemocratic institutions such as the House of Lords and the Monarchy. However, more