In this article you will learn about the Constitution of UK in Political Science.
Constitution of UK : Flexible and very easy method of amendment
The British Constitution can be amended by the British Parliament by enacting a law by simple majority of members of each house. In practice, since the House of Lords is a very weak house, the amending power of the constitution is virtually in the hands of the British House of Commons.
In fact, the British Constitution is a very flexible constitution. It can be amended, partially or wholly, by an ordinary law passed by the British Parliament. There is no distinction between constitutional law and ordinary law and each can be amended or repealed by the British Parliament. It can be accomplished by the passing of a simple law by both the House of British Parliament. Since the British upper house - the House of Lords has a very limited role in the legislative work, the real law-making power is in the hands of the House of Commons, and because of this fact, it really exercises the power to amend the Constitution. This makes the procedure of amendment of the British Constitution very easy and flexible.
In other words, the British Parliament can pass a law by a simple majority and make any amendment in the Constitution. It can even amend the whole Constitution by passing a single law. The British Constitution can be described as one of the most flexible constitutions in the world.
However, in actual practice the exercise is not as simple as it appears to be. Because of being a highly developed liberal democratic system in which strong and enlightened public opinion acts as the director and determinator of law-making, the amendment of the British Constitution is almost always very cautious, conscious and quite a difficult exercise. The people are quite conservative and are in love with their history and traditions and so much so, at times, every major amendment becomes possible only after getting a popular mandate in favour of the proposed amendment. As such, despite being a very flexible constitution it also, at times, works as a rigid constitution.
As a whole, the British Constitution has been and continues to be a very flexible constitution and its flexibility has helped it keep a good pace with needs of the changing socio-economic and political environment of the country.
This article on Constitution of UK in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.