The British constitution reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

British constitution

This article is part of the series Politics of the United Kingdom

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The constitution of the United Kingdom is comprised of:

• Acts of Parliament
• Conventions
• Common Law
• Royal Prerogative
• EU law
• Treaties
• Works of authority

Together, these are the written and unwritten parts of the constitution.

The UK is said to have an unwritten constitution because there is no single constitutional document which defines the working of Britain's constitutional system, although many comentators prefer the term uncodified constitution, since much of the material is in fact in written form (see British constitutional law.)

Among the many key documents or conventions are:

• Magna Carta
• Habeas Corpus Act 1679
• Bill of Rights 1689
• Act of Settlement 1701
• Act of Union 1707, joining England & Scotland to form Great Britain
• Act of Union 1800, joining Great Britain & Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
• Statute of Westminster 1931
• Parliament Act 1911 (revised 1949)
• Peerage Act 1963
• European Communities Act 1972
• Conventionss:
  • ... that, since the reign of Queen Anne, the monarch will not refuse to grant the Royal Assent to Bills passed by Parliament.
  • ... that the monarch will not dissolve Parliament without the advice of the Prime Minister.
  • ... that the monarch will ask the leader of the dominant party in the House of Commons to form a government.
  • ... that the monarch will ask a member of the House of Commons (rather than the House of Lords or someone outside parliament) to form a government.
  • ... that all ministers be drawn from the House of Commons or the Lords.
  • ... that the House of Lords will accept any legislation that was in the Government's manifesto (the 'Salisbury Convention').

Britain had a written constitution from 1653 to 1660.

In 2004, the Joint Committee of both the House of Commons and House of Lords, tasked with overseeing the drafting of the proposed Civil Contingencies Bill, published its first report, in which, amongst other things, it suggested ammending the bill's clauses that grant Cabinet Ministers the power "to disapply or modify any Act of Parliament" was overly wide, and that the bill should be modified to preclude changes to the following Acts, which, it suggested, formed "the fundamental parts of constitutional law" of the United Kingdom:

(names are shown as they appear in Hansard: [1])

• Magna Carta 1297
• Bill of Rights 1688
• Crown and Parliament Recognition Act 1689
• Act of Settlement 1700
• Union with Scotland Act 1707
• Union with Ireland Act 1800
• The Parliament Acts of 1911 & 1949
• Life Peerages Act 1958
• Emergency Powers Act 1964
• European Communities Act 1972
• House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975
• Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975
• British Nationality Act 1981
• Supreme Court Act 1981
• Representation of the People Act 1983
• Government of Wales Act 1998
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Northern Ireland Act 1998
• Scotland Act 1998
• House of Lords Act 1999

… as well as the bill itself (presumably to be named the Civil Contingencies Act 2004). However, this amendment was defeated by the government.

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