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That’s true of the US but ignores the fact only 3 countries in the world don’t have written constitutions - the UK, New Zealand, and Israel. I’m not being sarca

by exdsq 4y ago

That’s true of the US but ignores the fact only 3 countries in the world don’t have written constitutions - the UK, New Zealand, and Israel. I’m not being sarcastic when I say a lot of this is managed in the form of strange old traditions that, if stopped, would render the country fairly useless till they’re all codified somewhere.

PeterisP 4y ago
"would render the country fairly useless till they’re all codified somewhere" Not really, almost all of the things done by government for the daily management of the country are not related to the constitution and are already codified. You would need to figure out, agree and codify a mechanism for changing power, but you can arrange it so that you have years to do it and codifying that small part is not that huge of a task; USA had long conventions but that was more because of the need to actually create a country; and many other countries post-revolutions have functioned quite reasonably while codifying the constitutions, because it really doesn't affect the daily things, and you can run on interim rules (in UK's case, continuing as before for a limited time) until it's done.
lambertsimnel 4y ago
Don't Canada and Sweden also lack written constitutions?
- dane-pgp 4y ago
  "According to ... the Constitution Act, 1982, the Canadian Constitution consists of the Canada Act 1982 (which includes the Constitution Act, 1982), acts and orders referred to in its schedule (including in particular the Constitution Act, 1867...), and any amendments to these documents."[0] "The Basic Laws of Sweden (Swedish: Sveriges grundlagar) are the four constitutional laws of the Kingdom of Sweden that regulate the Swedish political system, acting in a similar manner to the constitutions of most countries. ... Together, they constitute a basic framework that stands above other laws and regulation, and also define which agreements are themselves above normal Swedish law."[1] You're right, though, that sounds a lot like the arrangement that Israel has, and the Wikipedia article for the "Basic Laws of Israel"[2] says (without citation): "Israel is one of 6 countries (along with Canada, New Zealand, San Marino, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom) that operates entirely or in part according to an uncodified constitution..." [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Canada [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Sweden [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Israel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Israel

by exdsq 4y ago

PeterisP 4y ago

"would render the country fairly useless till they’re all codified somewhere" Not really, almost all of the things done by government for the daily management of the country are not related to the constitution and are already codified. You would need to figure out, agree and codify a mechanism for changing power, but you can arrange it so that you have years to do it and codifying that small part is not that huge of a task; USA had long conventions but that was more because of the need to actually create a country; and many other countries post-revolutions have functioned quite reasonably while codifying the constitutions, because it really doesn't affect the daily things, and you can run on interim rules (in UK's case, continuing as before for a limited time) until it's done.

lambertsimnel 4y ago

Don't Canada and Sweden also lack written constitutions?

dane-pgp 4y ago
"According to ... the Constitution Act, 1982, the Canadian Constitution consists of the Canada Act 1982 (which includes the Constitution Act, 1982), acts and orders referred to in its schedule (including in particular the Constitution Act, 1867...), and any amendments to these documents."[0] "The Basic Laws of Sweden (Swedish: Sveriges grundlagar) are the four constitutional laws of the Kingdom of Sweden that regulate the Swedish political system, acting in a similar manner to the constitutions of most countries. ... Together, they constitute a basic framework that stands above other laws and regulation, and also define which agreements are themselves above normal Swedish law."[1] You're right, though, that sounds a lot like the arrangement that Israel has, and the Wikipedia article for the "Basic Laws of Israel"[2] says (without citation): "Israel is one of 6 countries (along with Canada, New Zealand, San Marino, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom) that operates entirely or in part according to an uncodified constitution..." [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Canada [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Sweden [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Israel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Laws_of_Israel