‘Constitution’ as a Statutory Term

Abstract

There are at least fifteen statutes which use the term 'constitution' or its cognates to refer to the constitution of the United Kingdom (or that of England or Scotland, before the political union of these countries). Of these fifteen pieces of legislation, two date back to the 17th century, one was enacted in the 18th century, another in the 19th century, and one more between 1900 and 1995. In the seventeen years since 1996, at least ten statutes making explicit references to the British constitution have entered the statute books. In this article, I categorise these statutory references to the British constitution, and point to some important legal and constitutional implications of such references. In particular, the growing number of 'constitutional protection clauses' limiting the scope of Henry VIII powers are noted.

This article was first published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited) in T. Khaitan, “‘Constitution’ as a Statutory Term” (2013) 129 L.Q.R. 589 and this abstract is included by agreement with the Publishers.

Keywords: Political Constitution, Henry VIII powers, Constitutional Statutes, Constitutional Significance