Constitution

Question 1

What does it mean to have an unwritten constitution?

Answer 1

No single written document that is called the British constitution.
There are still constitutional laws and conventions.

Question 2

Positives and negatives of having an unwritten constitution

Answer 2

+ changing aspects of constitutional law is easy, it’s no different to any other types

• lots of power for the current gov to change law as they wish

Question 3

Give an example of a country with a written constitution

Answer 3

USA
has formal written documents and specified ways to make changes that involve each state

Question 4

What is an uncodifed constitution

Answer 4

Range of documents containing aspects of constitutional arrangements, but are not linked or identified as being constitutional

Question 5

Positives and negatives of an uncodified constitution

Answer 5

+ enable change to be made easily eg lowering voting age as it’s isolated from other issues

• changes made bit by bit could, when taken altogether, undermine existing constitutional rights

Question 6

What is a constitution

Answer 6

A set of rules that outlines how a country is run, including:

What powers different parts of the government have
How laws are made
What rights and freedoms citizens have

Question 7

Give examples of what makes up a constitution

Answer 7

Statute law
Common law
Conventions
Treaties

Question 8

Give examples of how the constitution has changed

Answer 8

The Supreme Court made a ruling that the government couldn’t close parliament to hold an election

The use of referendums increased citizens power to determine policy eg brexit 2016