With reference to the source, outline two features of the UK constitution (5 marks)

One feature would be that the UK constitution is uncodified which is a unwritten document where as in the majority of countries there is a codified constitution which is a single document an example of this would be the American constitution, drafted around 200 years ago, which is written down on a piece of paper and lays down the rights of American citizens and also the powers of her government. Another feature would be that the UK constitution derives from a number of sources one of them being statute law, law passed by government. The fact that our constitution is unwritten means that there is no system of formal checks and …show more content…

For example the introduction of devolution was in response to rising nationalism in Scotland and Wales. In the UK it is common to curb people’s individual rights for example in the light of the Dunblane tragedy the Firearms Acts of 1996 and 1997 were put into place banning all private ownership of all cartridge ammunition hand guns, this has said to possibly reduced the use of guns in the industry. However in the US there has been a steep rise of violence so the government have tried to deal with it by passing a large number of gun laws by 2004 there were well over 20,000 laws stating guns could be carried nationwide by the National rifle association. However there were 29,596 deaths caused by guns and in fact 80 cases have been filed but have been struck down by the constitutional court in favour of the second amendment right ‘ the right to bear arms’ e.g. the district of Columbia v Heller in 2008. The UK has a long period of unbroken democratic rule. As the constitution is uncodified, sovereignty is ultimately vested in parliamentary sovereignty. Therefore changes come about because of democratic pressure. For example the House of Lords were reduced through Parliament Acts, because of a growing belief that an unelected chamber should no longer have the right to block the policies of an unelected government. Also the UK doesn’t elect judges to keep influence to a minimum, which doesn’t make it very publicly accountable, where as in the