החוק החוקתי של הממלכה המאוחדת
הערות שוליים

↑  Magna Carta 1215 clauses 1 ('... the English church shall be free...'), 12 and 14 (no tax 'unless by common counsel of our kingdom...'), 17 ('Common pleas shall... be held in some fixed place'), 39-40 ('To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice'), 41 ('merchants shall have safe and secure exit from England, and entry to England') and 47-48 (land taken by the King 'shall forthwith be disafforested').
↑  The ILO was formed as part of the (now defunct) League of Nations in the Versailles Treaty 1919 Part XIII. The UN was formed in 1945. The Commonwealth of Nations was formally established by the London Declaration of 1949. The Council of Europe was created in 1950. The European Union was formed by the Maastricht Treaty 1992, succeeding the European Community which the UK joined by the European Communities Act 1972. The WTO was created in 1994.
↑  See AW Bradley, KD Ewing and CJS Knight, Constitutional and Administrative Law (2018) ch 2, 32–48, on historic structure, and devolution.
↑  See F Pollock and FW Maitland, The history of English law before the time of Edward I (1899) Book I, ch I, 1, ‘Such is the unity of all history that anyone who endeavours to tell a piece of it must feel that his first sentence tears a seamless web.’
↑  Pollock and Maitland (1899) 4–5
↑  cf E Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1789) arguing Christianity led to weakness that caused Rome’s fall.
↑  Pollock and Maitland (1899) 5-6
↑  FW Maitland, The constitutional history of England (1909) 6
↑  DD McGarry, Medieval History and Civilization (1976) 242, 12% free, 30% serfs, 35% bordars and cottars, 9% slaves.
↑  T Purser, Medieval England, 1042–1228 (2004) 161, this included a 25% tax on income and property, all the year's wool, and all churches gold and silver, to pay a ransom after Richard I was captured when returning from the crusades by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
↑  Magna Carta 1215 clauses 12 (Parliament), 17 (court), 39 (fair trial), 41 (free movement), 47 (common land).
↑  See W Langland, Piers Plowman (1370) Passus 5, 3278, "But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood" is the first mention of the tales, notably in the run up to the Peasants' revolt of 1381. As ballads and poems evolved, see John Stow, Annales of England (1592)
↑  Charter of the Forest 1217. This allowed, for example, in clause 9, ‘Every freeman shall at his own pleasure provide agistment' or grazing rights, and in clause 12, ‘Henceforth every freeman, in his wood or on his land that he has in the forest, may with impunity make a mill, fish-preserve, pond, marl-pit, ditch, or arable in cultivated land outside coverts, provided that no injury is thereby given to any neighbour.’
↑  Pollock and Maitland (1899) Book I, 173
↑  J Froissart, The Chronicles of Froissart (1385) translated by GC Macaulay (1895) 250–52, "What have we deserved, or why should we be kept thus in servage? We be all come from one father and one mother, Adam and Eve: whereby can they say or shew that they be greater lords than we be, saving by that they cause us to win and labour for that they dispend? They are clothed in velvet and camlet furred with grise, and we be vestured with poor cloth: they have their wines, spices and good bread, and we have the drawing out of the chaff and drink water: they dwell in fair houses, and we have the pain and travail, rain and wind in the fields; and by that that cometh of our labours they keep and maintain their estates: we be called their bondmen, and without we do readily them service, we be beaten; and we have no sovereign to whom we may complain, nor that will hear us nor do us right."
↑  EP Cheyney, ‘The Disappearance of English Serfdom’ (1900) 15(57) English Historical Review 20 and A Fitzherbert, Surueyenge (1546) 31, servitude was ‘the greatest inconvenience that nowe is suffred by the lawe. That is to have any christen man bounden to an other, and to have the rule of his body, landes, and goodes, that his wyfe, children, and servantes have laboured for, all their life tyme, to be so taken, lyke as it were extorcion or bribery’.
↑  See Inclosure Acts and Vagrancy Act 1547. cf T More, Utopia (1516) Book I, "wherever it is found that the sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men, the abbots not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded... stop the course of agriculture, destroying houses and towns, reserving only the churches, and enclose grounds that they may lodge their sheep in them... Stop the rich from cornering markets and establishing virtual monopolies. Reduce the number of people who are kept doing nothing. Revive agriculture and the wool industry, so that there is plenty of honest, useful work for the great army of unemployed – by which I mean not only existing thieves, but tramps and idle servants who are bound to become thieves eventually."
↑  On his behalf Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset ruled as Lord Protector until he was replaced and executed by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Somerset House was transferred to the crown, and Elizabeth was allowed to live there by Mary, Queen of Scots as she killed Lady Jane Grey (1554) and ruled until 1558. Mary then died without children, after killing hundreds of protestants.
↑  James, The True Law of Free Monarchies (1598)
↑  Coke had already reported on many significant constitutional judgments, often adding his own style, including Heydon's Case (1584) 76 ER 637, that the task of a court in construing any statute is to find its mischief and the intention of Parliament, and Semayne's Case (1604) 5 Coke Rep 91, that nobody can enter another's property without lawful authority and that "the house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose." See also Calvin's Case that a person born in Scotland is entitled to all rights in England.
↑  Case of Prohibitions
↑  Case of Proclamations [1610] EWHC KB J22
↑  (1610) 77 Eng Rep 638
↑  e.g. Day v Savadge (1614) Hob 85, 80 ER 235, Hobart CJ, ‘even an Act of Parliament, made against natural equity, as to make a man judge in his own case, is void in itself, for jura nutrae sunt immutabilia, and they are leges legu.’ R v Love (1653) 5 State Tr 825, 828, Keble J, ‘Whatsoever is not consonant to the law of God, or to right reason which is maintained by scripture... be it Acts of Parliament, customs, or any judicial acts of the Court, it is not the law of England.’ City of London v Wood (1701) 12 Mod 669 per Holt CJ. cf W Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765) "if the parliament will positively enact a thing to be done which is unreasonable, I know of no power that can control it..." In the US, Coke CJ's argument was applied in Marbury v Madison 5 US (1 Cranch) 137 (1803).
↑  (1615) 21 ER 485
↑  Five Knights' case (1627) 3 How St Tr 1
↑  Petition of Right 1628 (3 Car 1 c 1)
↑  Debates on the proper nature of liberty were held at the Putney debates, October to November 1647, summarised in ASP Woodhouse, Puritanism and Liberty (1938) 52. By contrast, a bitter opponent of the civil war was T Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
↑  Richard Cromwell, Oliver's son, briefly succeeded but lacking support swiftly renounced power after nine months.
↑  The conflict ended at Battle of the Boyne.
↑  Bill of Rights 1689 and Claim of Right 1689 arts 2, 8 and 13
↑  John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689) Chapter IX
↑  (1703) 92 ER 126, per Holt CJ confirmed by the House of Lords.
↑  Union with Scotland Act 1706 arts 18 and 19, stipulate that Scottish private law would continue under a Scottish court system.
↑  A Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776) Book V, ch 1, §107
↑  Keech v Sandford [1726] EWHC J76, an English trust law case following Lord Macclesfield LC, disgraced by his role on the South Sea Company, impeached by the House of Lords and found guilty of taking bribes in 1725. Keech reversed Bromfield v Wytherley (1718) Prec Ch 505 that a fiduciary could take money from a trust and keep profits if they restored the principal afterwards.
↑  Attorney General v Davy (1741) 26 ER 531 established that any body of assembled people can do a corporate act by a majority.
↑  Walpole's tenure lasted from 1721-1742.
↑  Entick v Carrington [1765] EWHC KB J98
↑  (1772) 98 ER 499 Charles Stewart from Boston, Massachusetts had bought James Somerset as a slave and taken him to England. With the help of abolitionists, Somerset escaped and sued for a writ of habeas corpus (that "holding his body" had been unlawful). Lord Mansfield, after declaring he should "let justice be done whatever be the consequence", held that slavery was "so odious" that nobody could take "a slave by force to be sold" for any "reason whatever".
↑  AW Blumrosen, 'The Profound Influence in America of Lord Mansfield's Decision in Somerset v Stuart' (2007) 13 Texas Wesleyan Law Review 645
↑  Using the Transportation Act 1717 and then the Transportation Act 1790.
↑  See the Combination Acts, etc.
↑  J Bentham, Anarchical Fallacies; Being an examination of the Declaration of Rights issued during the French Revolution (1796)
↑  M Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) Chapter IX
↑  Union with Ireland Act 1800 arts 3–4 gave Irish representation at Westminster.
↑  T Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) supported this, arguing that working class "vice" and overpopulation was the cause of poverty.
↑  (1834) 172 ER 1380
↑  Letter to Lord Russell (October 1862) 'Power in the Hands of the Masses throws the Scum of the Community to the Surface. ... Truth and Justice are soon banished from the Land.'
↑  See also the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 and Allen v Flood [1898] AC 1
↑  See S Tharoor, Inglorious Empire (2018)
↑  Taff Vale Railway Co v Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants [1901] UKHL 1
↑  Trade Disputes Act 1906
↑  Old Age Pensions Act 1908
↑  Trade Boards Act 1909
↑  National Insurance Act 1911
↑  Parliament Act 1949 reduced the power to delay to one year.
↑  e.g. 'Speech to the 69th Annual Conservative Party Conference at Llandudno' (9 October 1948). See J Danzig 'Winston Churchill: A founder of the European Union' (10 November 2013) EU ROPE
↑  JC Coffee, ‘What Went Wrong? An Initial Inquiry into the Causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis’ (2009) 9(1) Journal of Corporate Law Studies 1. For problems starting in US regulation, see E Warren, ‘Product Safety Regulation as a Model for Financial Services Regulation’ (2008) 43(2) Journal of Consumer Affairs 452, and contrast the Consumer Credit Act 1974 or the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive 93/13/EEC arts 3–6.
↑  AW Bradley, KD Ewing and CJS Knight, Constitutional and Administrative Law (2018) chs 1-6
↑  R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019 UKSC 41] [39]
↑  R (HS2 Action Alliance Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport [2014] UKSC 3, [207] per Lord Neuberger and Lord Mance, "The United Kingdom has no written constitution, but we have a number of constitutional instruments. They include Magna Carta, the Petition of Right 1628, the Bill of Rights and (in Scotland) the Claim of Rights Act 1689, the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Act of Union 1707. The European Communities Act 1972, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 may now be added to this list."
↑  On conventions, see Attorney General v Jonathan Cape Ltd [1975] 3 All ER 484
↑  See T Bingham, The Rule of Law (2011) and Entick v Carrington [1765] EWHC KB J98
↑  Great Reform Act 1832 (common property qualification rules for all boroughs and counties), Representation of the People Act 1867 (extended the franchise to around 1/3 of men), Representation of the People Act 1884 (extended the male franchise), Representation of the People Act 1918 (enabled all men to vote over 21, and women over 30 with property), and Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 (enabled equal suffrage of men at women age 21). The Representation of the People Act 1948 further abolished multiple votes for graduates of London, Cambridge and Oxford, and other University constituencies, and the Representation of the People Act 1969 lowered the voting age to 18. Restrictions on prisoner voting were inserted by the Representation of the People Act 1983. British citizens abroad can vote under the Representation of the People Act 1985, but millions of UK residents, who pay taxes but do not have citizenship, cannot vote.
↑  See the Appropriation Act 1923 Sch 4
↑  See generally, AW Bradley, ‘The Sovereignty of Parliament – Form or Substance?’ in J Jowell, The Changing Constitution (7th edn 2011) ch 2
↑  cf AW Bradley and KD Ewing, Constitutional and Administrative Law (2015) 65, it ‘is not possible to predict the outcome of changes made by Parliament to the ‘manner and form’ of the legislative process since, depending on the nature and reasons for such changes, the courts might still be influenced by a deep-seated belief in the proposition that Parliament cannot bind itself.’
↑  Magna Carta 1215 cl 12, ‘No scutage [tax on knight's land or fee] nor aid shall be imposed on our kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom...’
↑  Earl of Oxford’s case (1615) 21 ER 485, Lord Ellesmere LC, ‘... when a Judgment is obtained by Oppression, Wrong and a hard Conscience, the Chancellor will frustrate and set it aside, not for any error or Defect in the Judgment, but for the hard Conscience of the Party.’
↑  Dr Bonham’s case (1610) 8 Co Rep 114a
↑  Parliament Act 1949 s 1.
↑  Parliament Act 1911 s 1.
↑  [2005] UKHL 56, [120] 'Parliamentary sovereignty is an empty principle if legislation is passed which is so absurd or so unacceptable that the populace at large refuses to recognise it as law'.
↑  cf Leslie Stephen, The Science of Ethics (1882) 145, "Lawyers are apt to speak as though the legislature were omnipotent, as they do not require to go beyond its decisions. It is, of course, omnipotent in the sense that it can make whatever laws it pleases, inasmuch as a law means any rule which has been made by the legislature. But from the scientific point of view, the power of the legislature is of course strictly limited. It is limited, so to speak, both from within and from without; from within, because the legislature is the product of a certain social condition, and determined by whatever determines the society; and from without, because the power of imposing laws is dependent upon the instinct of subordination, which is itself limited. If a legislature decided that all blue-eyed babies should be murdered, the preservation of blue-eyed babies would be illegal; but legislators must go mad before they could pass such a law, and subjects be idiotic before they could submit to it."
↑  AV Dicey, The Law of the Constitution (1885) 39-40, Parliament has ‘under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and further... no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.’
↑  Treaty of Versailles 1919 Part XIII, statute of the International Labour Organization
↑  See the International Organisations Act 1968 ss 1-8
↑  United Nations Act 1946 s 1
↑  See, for example, the Legality of the Iraq War page.
↑  e.g. 'Speech to the 69th Annual Conservative Party Conference at Llandudno' (9 October 1948). See J Danzig 'Winston Churchill: A founder of the European Union' (10 November 2013) EU ROPE
↑  Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (1963) Case 26/62, [94] member states "have limited their sovereign rights, albeit within limited fields, and have thus created a body of law which binds both their nationals and themselves" on the "basis of reciprocity".
↑  [1990] UKHL 7
↑  [2014] UKSC 3
↑  See further, P Craig and G de Búrca, EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (6th edn 2015) chs 9-10. See also, by analogy in German constitutional law, Solange II or Re Wünsche Handelsgesellschaft (22 October 1986) BVerfGE, [1987] 3 CMLR 225
↑  [2017] UKSC 5
↑  See Opinion polling for the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum#Post–referendum polling
↑  [2017] UKSC 5, [146] "Judges, therefore, are neither the parents nor the guardians of political conventions; they are merely observers. As such, they can recognise the operation of a political convention in the context of deciding a legal question (as in the Crossman diaries case - Attorney General v Jonathan Cape Ltd [1976] 1 QB 752), but they cannot give legal rulings on its operation or scope, because those matters are determined within the political world. As Professor Colin Munro has stated, “the validity of conventions cannot be the subject of proceedings in a court of law” - (1975) 91 LQR 218, 228."
↑  cf Aristotle, Politics (330 BCE) 3.16, ‘It is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens’.
↑  X v Morgan-Grampian Ltd [1991] AC 1, 48, per Lord Bridge, ‘The maintenance of the rule of law is in every way as important in a free society as the democratic franchise. In our society the rule of law rests upon twin foundations: the sovereignty of the Queen in Parliament in making the law and the sovereignty of the Queen's courts in interpreting and applying the law.’
↑  R (Jackson) v Attorney General [2005] UKHL 56, [104] per Lord Hope
↑  T Bingham, ‘The Rule of Law’ (2007) 66(1) Cambridge Law Journal 67 and see also T Bingham, Rule of Law (2008) 8, ‘all persons and authorities within the state, whether public or private should be bound by and entitled to the benefit of laws publicly made, taking effect (generally) in the future and publicly administered in the courts.’ Lord Bingham, ‘The Rule of Law and the Sovereignty of Parliament’ (31 October 2007) King's College, London also remarked, ‘democracy lies at the heart of the concept of the rule of law’.
↑  AV Dicey, Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (3rd edn 1889) Part II, ch IV, 189, first "absolute supremacy or predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power", second "equality before the law, or the equal subjection of all classes to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary law courts" and third, "principles of private law have with us been by the action of the courts and Parliament so extended as to determine the position of the Crown and of its servants". See also J Raz, ‘The Rule of Law and its Virtue’ (1977) 93 Law Quarterly Review 195. Contrast D Lino, ‘The Rule of Law and the Rule of Empire: A.V. Dicey in Imperial Context’ (2018) 81(5) Modern Law Review 739. Previously, discourse among international finance followed a restrictive ideal: M Stephenson, ‘Rule of Law as a Goal of Development Policy’ (2008) World Bank Research
↑  Constitutional Reform Act 2005 ss 1, 63-65 and Schs 8 and 12
↑  T Bingham, Rule of Law (2008) 8, ‘all persons and authorities within the state, whether public or private should be bound by and entitled to the benefit of laws publicly made, taking effect (generally) in the future and publicly administered in the courts.’
↑  [1765] EWHC KB J98
↑  European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 (1) Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. (2) There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
↑  [1979] Ch 344
↑  [1984] ECHR 10, (1984) 7 EHRR 14
↑  Originally the Interception of Communications Act 1985, and now the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 ss 1-11, as amended by the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014.
↑  [2008] UKHL 60, [2]-[7]
↑  R (Corner House Research) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office [2008] UKHL 60, [55]
↑  See A v Home Secretary [2004] UKHL 56, Lord Nicholls, ‘indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law’.
↑  [2017] UKSC 51, [66]-[68]
↑  e.g. M v Home Office [1993] UKHL 5, holding the Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, in contempt of court for failing to return a Zaire teacher to the UK on refugee status, despite a High Court judge ordering it be done.
↑  Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748) Book XI, ch 6, ‘When legislative power is united with executive power in a single person or in a single body of the magistracy, there is no liberty.’
↑  AW Bradley, KD Ewing and CJS Knight, Constitutional and Administrative Law (2014) 94. cf W Bagehot, The English Constitution 65, the ‘efficient secret’ of the UK constitution was ‘the close union, the nearly complete fusion, of the legislative and executive powers’.
↑  Constitutional Reform Act 2005 ss 108-9
↑  Constitutional Reform Act 2005 s 3.
↑  cf A Bradley, ‘The Sovereignty of Parliament – Form or Substance?’ in Jowell, The Changing Constitution (7th edn 2011) 35, ‘A further question is whether the democratic process in the UK works so well as to justify the absence of any limit on the authority of Parliament to legislate.’ Criticising AV Dicey, The Law of the Constitution (10th edn 1959) 73, who said ‘The electors in the long run can always enforce their will’, on the basis that executive dominance over Parliament might require revisions of the extent of the concept.
↑  Lord Bingham, ‘The Rule of Law and the Sovereignty of Parliament’ (31 October 2007) Speech given at King's College, London. It is also a considered that the rule of law is necessary for democracy, e.g. X v Morgan-Grampian Ltd [1991] AC 1, 48, per Lord Bridge, ‘The maintenance of the rule of law is in every way as important in a free society as the democratic franchise." Lord Woolf [1995] PL 57, ‘Our Parliamentary democracy is based on the Rule of Law.... If Parliament did the unthinkable then I would say that the courts would also be required to act in a manner which would be unprecedented." Reference on Quebec (1998) 161 DLR (4th) 385, 416, "democracy in any real sense of the word cannot exist without the rule of law." R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51, [68] "Without such access [to courts], laws are liable to become a dead letter, the work done by Parliament may be rendered nugatory, and the democratic election of Members of Parliament may become a meaningless charade."
↑  See Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (c 411 BC) Book 2, para 37. Contrast Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book V, Parts 3 and 4, translated by DP Chase (favouring aristocracy, by equating it with appointment according "excellence", supposedly), and Plato, The Republic, Book IV, Part V, 139, translated by D Lee (arguing that philosopher kings should rule over a rigid hierarchy where there was "no interchange of jobs").
↑  ECHR 1950 Preamble
↑  See Mathieu-Mohin and Clerfayt v Belgium (1987) 10 EHRR 1, [47] on ECHR 1950 Prot 1, art 3
↑  J Habermas, Between Facts and Norms (1996) 135, ‘the only law that counts as legitimate is one that could be rationally accepted by all citizens in a discursive process of opinion - and will-formation.’
↑  e.g. R Dworkin, ‘Constitutionalism and Democracy’ (1995) 3(1) European Journal of Philosophy 2-11, 4-5, a constitutional democracy means: (1) ‘a majority or plurality of people’ (2) ‘all citizens have the moral independence necessary to participate in the political decision as free moral agents’ (3) ‘the political process is such as to treat all citizens with equal concern’. D Feldman, Civil Liberties and Human Rights in England and Wales (2002) 32-33 ‘it would be perverse to argue that there is anything undemocratic about a restriction on the capacity of decision-makers to interfere with the rights which are fundamental to democracy itself’. See also Matadeen v Pointu [1999] 1 AC 98, Lord Hoffmann, “Their Lordships do not doubt that such a principle [of equality] is one of the building blocks of democracy and necessarily permeates any democratic constitution."
↑  See Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 Articles 21 and 29(2), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 Article 25, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966, Article 4
↑  Archie v Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago [2018] UKPC 23, [18] Lady Hale, "A vital element in any modern democratic constitution is the independence of the judiciary from the other arms of government, the executive and the legislature. This is crucial to maintaining the rule of law: the judges must be free to interpret and apply the law, in accordance with their judicial oaths, not only in disputes between private persons but also in disputes between private persons and the state. The state, in the shape of the executive, is as much subject to the rule of law as are private persons." cf KD Ewing, ‘The Resilience of the Political Constitution’ [2013] 14(12) German Law Journal 2111, 2116, suggesting the current political constitution of the UK is not necessarily the same as a fully democratic constitution.
↑  (1703) 2 Ld Raym 938, dissent approved by the House of Lords.
↑  [1975] QB 151
↑  Animal Defenders International v United Kingdom [2008] UKHL 15, [48] and see also [2013] ECHR 362
↑  Gorringe v Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council [2004] UKHL 15, [2]. See also O'Rourke v Camden London Borough Council [1998] AC 188, "the [Housing] Act [1985] is a scheme of social welfare, intended to confer benefits at the public expense on grounds of public policy."
↑  e.g. Johnson v Unisys Limited [2001] UKHL 13, and Gisda Cyf v Barratt [2010] UKSC 41, [39]
↑  See, for example, J Lobel, 'The Limits of Constitutional Power: Conflicts between Foreign Policy and International Law' (1985) 71(7) Virginia Law Review 1071. J Habermas, 'The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Legitimation Problems of a Constitution for World Society' (2008) 15(4) Constellations 444. In Germany, see Grundgesetz 1949 Article 25, "The general rules of international law shall be an integral part of federal law. They shall take precedence over the laws and directly create rights and duties for the inhabitants of the federal territory." In the EU, see Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council and Commission (2008) C-402/05, holding that international law binds EU law unless it requires an act that would run contrary to basic human rights.
↑  e.g. Magna Carta 1215, ch 41, ‘All merchants shall have safe and secure exit from England, and entry to England, with the right to tarry there and to move about as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient and right customs, quit from all evil tolls, except (in time of war) such merchants as are of the land at war with us...’
↑  Coke, 1 Institutes 182
↑  See Bate's case or Case of Impositions (1606) 2 St Tr 371, John Bate claimed he did not need to pay a duty on imported currants imposed by the Crown, as contrary to the Confirmation of Charters, Weirs, Taxation Act 1371, 45 Edw 3 c 4, which prohibited indirect taxation without consent of Parliament. The Court of Exchequer held the Crown could impose the duty as he pleased to regulate trade. The Court could not go behind the King's statement that the duty was indeed imposed for the purpose of regulating trade. Then, the Case of Ship Money or R v Hampden (1637) 3 St Tr 825 held that the King could raise money from trade without Parliament. This was reversed by the Shipmoney Act 1640, and after the civil war and glorious revolution, once again by the Bill of Rights 1689 art 4.
↑  Lethulier's Case (1692) 2 Salk 443, "we take notice of the laws of merchants that are general, not of those that are particular."
↑  Luke v Lyde (1759) 97 Eng Rep 614, 618; (1759) 2 Burr 882, 887
↑  Pillans v Van Mierop (1765) 3 Burr 1663
↑  Somerset v Stewart (1772) 98 ER 499, "The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of now being introduced by Courts of Justice upon mere reasoning or inferences from any principles, natural or political; it must take its rise from positive law; the origin of it can in no country or age be traced back to any other source: immemorial usage preserves the memory of positive law long after all traces of the occasion; reason, authority, and time of its introduction are lost..."
↑  Saad v SS for the Home Department [2001] EWCA Civ 2008, [15] Lord Phillips MR, quoting Bennion on Statutory Interpretation (3rd ed) p 630 that: “It is a principle of legal policy that the municipal law should conform to public international law. The court, when considering, in relation to the facts of the instant case, which of the opposing constructions of the enactment would give effect to the legislative intention, should presume that the legislator intended to observe this principle.”
↑  R v Lyons [2002] UKHL 44, [27] Lord Hoffmann
↑  [2014] UKSC 47
↑  See further R (SG) v SS for Work and Pensions [2015] UKSC 16, on the benefits cap, Lord Kerr, dissenting, at [247]-[257] argued the dualist theory of international law should be abandoned, and international law should be directly effective in UK law.
↑  Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council and Commission (2008) C-402/05
↑  e.g. Winston Churchill, 'Speech to the 69th Annual Conservative Party Conference at Llandudno' (9 October 1948). See J Danzig 'Winston Churchill: A founder of the European Union' (10 November 2013) EU ROPE
↑  cf World Trade Organization (Immunities and Privileges) Order 1995
↑  On the post-referendum crisis, see R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5 and European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 s 1, giving power to the PM to notify intention to negotiate to leave the EU.
הכיבוש הנורמני של אנגליה תרם לריכוז השלטון בידי הריבון, באותה העת המלך ויליאם הכובש. בתמונה דף מתוך ספר יום הדין שפורסם ב-1086.
ג'ון לוק, שרבים מעקרונותיה החוקתיים של בריטניה שנקבעו מאז המהפכה המהוללת דרך חוק הזכויות של 1689 מבוססים על כתביו שתי מסכתות על ממשל מדיני.
התנועה הצ'רטיסטית מפגינה בדרישה למתן זכות הצבעה דמוקרטית לפועלים חסרי נכסים במקביל לאביב העמים, 1848. בשונה ממדינות רבות בארופה שזועזעו ממהפכות במאה ה-19, בריטניה קידמה דמוקרטיה ומתן זכויות וחירויות דרך רפורמה הדרגתית.
הממלכה המאוחדת  האיחוד האירופיבין השנים 1972 ל-2020, בריטניה הייתה חברה באיחוד האירופי, חקיקות של האיחוד עמדו לעיתים מעל לחוק הבריטי המקומי בעוד דרך הצבעה למוסדות האיחוד התרחב תחום ההשפעה הדמוקרטי של תושבי בריטניה.
הלורד ראש השופטים, תום בינגהאם, הברון בינגהאם מקורנהיל, שהגדרתו לשלטון החוק הפכה למקובלת ביותר בפרשון המשפטי של העיקרון החוקתי. לפי פרשנות זאת על שלטון החוק לכלול בהכרח דיני יושר, זכויות אדם, נכונות לדמוקרטיה והמשפט הבינלאומי.
בפסק דין אשבי נגד וייט מתחילת המאה ה-18 נקבעה הזכות העקרונית של אדם להצביע בבחירות למייצג מטעמו בפרלמנט (דמוקרטיה). בתמונה: דיוקן של בחירות כלליות בממלכת בריטניה הגדולה.