DISCUSS THE SALIENT FEATURES OF ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
(1) Introduction To British Constitution:-
Constitution of Great Britain is the set of laws and principles under which Great Britain is governed. British Constitution is based on two major principles. One principle is parliamentary supremacy and other principle is rule of law. Under British Constitution, Parliament is the supreme law-making body and everyone is equal before the law and no person is above the law.
(2) Nature of British Constitution:-
The British Constitution started with a change from monarchical system to parliamentary democracy and it is still developing. Shortly speaking, it can be stated that British Constitution is continuously changing and growing; British Constitution is growing, developing and changing so as to meet the needs of the time. On the basis of its growth, change and development, it will not be wrong to mention that nature of British Constitution is organic and evolutionary.
(3) Distinctive/salient features of British Constitution:-
Followings are some salient or distinctive feature of British Constitution:
(i) Unwritten Constitution
(ii) Evolved Constitution
(iii) Flexible Constitution
(iv) Unitary Constitution
(v) Bicameral legislature
(vi) Supremacy of Parliament
(vii) Representative government
(viii) Parliamentary government
(ix) Constitutional Monarchy
(x) Growth of two party system
(xi) Independency of judiciary
(xii) Rule of law
(i) Unwritten Constitution:-
Most salient feature of British Constitution is that it is mostly unwritten. According to some constitutional experts, British Constitution has remained mostly unwritten because much of it has been derived from those sources, which are themselves in unwritten from.
(ii) Evolved Constitution:-
A distinctive feature of British Constitution is that it is an evolved constitution. It has not been made at once. It has passed through an evolutionary process to assume the present form.
(iii) Flexible Constitution:-
Unique feature of British Constitution is that it is continuously changing and growing; British Constitution is growing, developing and changing so as to meet the needs of the time. On the basis of its growth, change and development, it will not be wrong to mention that British Constitution is flexible one.
(iv) Unitary Constitution:-
Another salient feature British constitution is that it is unitary in nature. It is due to this constitution that pnly a single government possesses all the powers of state and all other local governments are subordinate to such government.
(v) Bicameral legislature:-
Another unique feature of British Constitution is that it has established a Parliament, which consists of two houses. In other words, it has introduced bicameral legislature.
(vi) Supremacy of Parliament:-
Another distinctive feature of British Constitution is that it vests all powers of government in parliament. The reality is that British Constitution has established supremacy of Parliament over monarchy.
(vii) Representative government:-
Another salient feature of British Constitution is that it has introduced representative government, in other words, it has paved a way for development of responsible government as a representative government can only be a responsible government.
(viii) Parliamentary government:-
Another unique feature of British Constitution is that it has established Parliamentary government by making Parliament sovereign over Monarchy.
(ix) Constitutional Monarchy:-
Another distinctive feature of British Constitution is that it has though put some checks on the powers of Monarchy, yet it has not completely abolished monarchy. In fact, it has constitutionalized the monarchy.
(x) Two party system:-
Another salient feature of British Constitution is that it has paved a way for growth of two party system. In this way, it has played an important role in the development of strong political system.
(xi) Independency of judiciary:-
Another unique feature of British Constitution is that it has created independency of judiciary.
(xii) Rule of law:-
Another distinctive feature of British Constitution is that it has laid down principle of rule of law throughout the whole Great Britain.
(4) Conclusion:-
To conclude, it can be stated that although critics have presented very strong criticism against British unwritten and uncodified constitution, yet British Constitution has been proved an extra ordinary success, which has helped Great Britain to lead rest of the world in the constitutional development.
