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3 Manchester Rev. L. Crime & Ethics 1 (2014)
Britain's Pursuit of a Codified Constitution

handle is hein.journals/manrvlce3 and id is 17 raw text is: Britain's Pursuit of a Codified Constitution Arvindh Rai1 Abstract Iis artcle attempts to flesh out some of the most important arguments for and against the codification of the Britsh constitution. They are considered in the context of two distinct forms of codification, the first being the restatement of the UK's existing constitutional arrangements and the second being the reform of the Bhdish constitudon. At the heart of these arguments lie assessments of parliamentary sovereignty and its compatbilhiy with a codified constituvion. This article also addresses the international peculiay of the UK's position as the only European State wfithout a codified constitution and its relevance to the pursuit of a codified constitution for the UK It its concluded that, as things currently stand, there is no sufticiendy cogent reason for the UK to pursue a codified consitution. I. Introduction The constitutional reform programme of the first New Labour Government of 1997-2010 gave rise to tidal waves of reform, some of which are still working their way through Britain'sconstantly morphing constitutional landscape.2 The notion of a codified constitution for the UK appears to have ridden these waves, with both Labour and the Conservatives having indicated their commitment towards the production of a codified constitution3 and a British Bill of Rights respectively.4 The primary focus of this article is to assess 1 Thanksare owed to Anmin Al-Astewani and Professor Rodney Brazier for editorial support. 2 Robert Hazell, 'The Continuing Dynamism of Constitutional Reform' [20071 ParlAff 3. 3 Gordon Brown in a speech on new politics at Centre Point: And let me say to you today, that Labour's manifesto will include our conmitment to charting a course to a written constitution. 4 David Cameron in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies: The Conservative Party, under my leadership, is determined to provide a hard- nosed defence of security and freedom.And I believe that the right way to do that is through a modem British Bill of Rights that also balances rights with responsibilities. This proposal was subject to wide criticism - see

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