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A thread for any questions on studying law or my experience at the University of Southampton. I am a third year law student at Southampton and happy to answer any questions!
(edited 2 years ago)
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Joleee
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why does the UK not make constitutional conventions legal?
Original post by Joleee
why does the UK not make constitutional conventions legal?


Hey,

This is a really interesting question, which actually you’ll probably touch on in public law if you choose to do a law degree. Are you looking to study law at university?

It’s actually hard to give a short answer to this question and explain everything here and it engages with the nature of the U.K. constitution (which can be complicated and definitely not something I can explain in just one post). I think it’s mainly down to the nature of the U.K. constitution which has evolved gradually historically, but is uncodified (so not written in one place unlike the US constitution). A lot of conventions are often rooted in history and tradition.

Conventions are not legally enforceable, but there is an argument that in practice they are. Although legally conventions do not pose a constraint, politically they do. The sewel convention for example limits parliaments ability to legislate on devolved powers. Whilst legally Parliament can depart from sewel, in practice, the political implications of doing so means that it can’t really do so/ probably won’t. As Lord Denning illustrates in a well known quote - “freedom once given cannot be taken away. Legal theory must give way to practical politics. “ Perhaps because of this, there hasn’t been as much of a push to make conventions legally enforceable.

Where you stand on this can also link to whether you prefer a codified constitution or an uncodified one. There are different advantages and disadvantages to each.

All the best,

Teresa (University of Southampton Ambassador)
(edited 2 years ago)

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