4 ms·

I love this. I love it partly because I could never imagine this happening in the UK. The UK doesn't have a constitution. And I could imagine this getting shut

by new299 10y ago

I love this. I love it partly because I could never imagine this happening in the UK. The UK doesn't have a constitution. And I could imagine this getting shut down pretty quickly. I hope this kind of attitude persists in the US. It's one of the things that continues to give me hope for western style democracy.

resoluteteeth 10y ago
> The UK doesn't have a constitution. The UK doesn't have a written constitution.
- user837387 10y ago
  So..., it does not have a constitution then?
  - user837387 10y ago
    I normally do not care about down-votes and I still don't but for people who are downvoting me explain to me this: Where can I go and read the constitution that exists but that it is not written down anywhere? It's an oxymoron. So for all practical purposes there is no constitution.
  - binarycrusader 10y ago
    It does, according to wikipedia (at least some sources are written): > The UK does not have one specific constitutional document. Instead the constitution is found within a variety of written and some unwritten sources. This is sometimes referred to as an "unwritten" or uncodified constitution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kin...
  - sampo 10y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kin...
huxley 10y ago
I know people believe this but the UK does have a constitution, it's the sum of laws, treaties, conventions and the Common Law as interpreted by the judiciary over hundreds of years. It is no less real than the American Constitution. What it doesn't have is a single written document (with amendments).
- eximius 10y ago
  That makes it a bit harder to go read, don't you think? It also lacks a fundamental feature the US Constitution has in being umambiguously final. No other law can supersede it. Interpreting an entire corpus of law as a 'constitution' is grossly inaequate.
  - sjy 10y ago
    The U.S. Constitution is far from unambiguous, and U.S. constitutional law can only be understood as a corpus of precedents which explain the meaning of terms which are open to interpretation, like 'due process' or 'freedom of speech.'
    - eximius 10y ago
      I didn't say that the Constitution was unambiguous, but that it is unambiguously the final law.
verbify 10y ago
The UK does have a constitution, it's just not a single codified constitutional document. This has led to some really interesting constitutional documents, for example, a letter to The TImes under a pseudonoym Senex was called a constitutional document in evidence taken before the Justice Committee: > Q16 Chairman: Is the letter to The Times in 1950 under a pseudonym Senex, which we now know is Alan Lascelles, a constitutional document that now guides us? > Lord Turnbull:In a strange way,it is,yes; people have accepted the logic of the arguments that he put forward. From https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmjust/396/396.pdf https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/... (Incidentally that letter has been superseded by the Fixed Parliament Act).
- int_19h 10y ago
  Your last note shows what the UK lacks - constitution as a supreme document. In UK, the Parliament is the supreme authority, and can amend that unwritten constitution simply by passing an Act of Parliament, which only requires a simple majority. In effect, this means that the Parliament is not really bound by the constitution. Which makes it largely useless for the purposes for which it is heavily used and relied upon in US.

by new299 10y ago

resoluteteeth 10y ago

> The UK doesn't have a constitution. The UK doesn't have a written constitution.

user837387 10y ago
So..., it does not have a constitution then?
- user837387 10y ago
  I normally do not care about down-votes and I still don't but for people who are downvoting me explain to me this: Where can I go and read the constitution that exists but that it is not written down anywhere? It's an oxymoron. So for all practical purposes there is no constitution.
- binarycrusader 10y ago
  It does, according to wikipedia (at least some sources are written): > The UK does not have one specific constitutional document. Instead the constitution is found within a variety of written and some unwritten sources. This is sometimes referred to as an "unwritten" or uncodified constitution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kin...
- sampo 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kin...

huxley 10y ago

I know people believe this but the UK does have a constitution, it's the sum of laws, treaties, conventions and the Common Law as interpreted by the judiciary over hundreds of years. It is no less real than the American Constitution. What it doesn't have is a single written document (with amendments).

eximius 10y ago
That makes it a bit harder to go read, don't you think? It also lacks a fundamental feature the US Constitution has in being umambiguously final. No other law can supersede it. Interpreting an entire corpus of law as a 'constitution' is grossly inaequate.
- sjy 10y ago
  The U.S. Constitution is far from unambiguous, and U.S. constitutional law can only be understood as a corpus of precedents which explain the meaning of terms which are open to interpretation, like 'due process' or 'freedom of speech.'
  - eximius 10y ago
    I didn't say that the Constitution was unambiguous, but that it is unambiguously the final law.

verbify 10y ago

The UK does have a constitution, it's just not a single codified constitutional document. This has led to some really interesting constitutional documents, for example, a letter to The TImes under a pseudonoym Senex was called a constitutional document in evidence taken before the Justice Committee: > Q16 Chairman: Is the letter to The Times in 1950 under a pseudonym Senex, which we now know is Alan Lascelles, a constitutional document that now guides us? > Lord Turnbull:In a strange way,it is,yes; people have accepted the logic of the arguments that he put forward. From https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmjust/396/396.pdf https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/... (Incidentally that letter has been superseded by the Fixed Parliament Act).

int_19h 10y ago
Your last note shows what the UK lacks - constitution as a supreme document. In UK, the Parliament is the supreme authority, and can amend that unwritten constitution simply by passing an Act of Parliament, which only requires a simple majority. In effect, this means that the Parliament is not really bound by the constitution. Which makes it largely useless for the purposes for which it is heavily used and relied upon in US.