Advantages Of A Codified Constitution

The UK is currently one of the few democracies in the world with an uncodified constitution and there has been debate on whether it should become codified. This essay argues that although having a codified constitution increases clarity for the population and limits government power, it is too rigid and unnecessary, and also contradicts the fundamental principles and values of the current constitution.

One of the most important reasons for the codification of the constitution is clarity for the citizens of the UK. It is argued that the current uncodified constitution is far too complex and therefore, the public have little insight and awareness of how the state is government and how it operates. Being able to access the country’s fundamental

If a codified constitution requires 2/3 majority in both houses for an amendment, devolution would never have been passed by the Parliament, but we can see its benefits. How can we possibly know that what may be best for our current aims will still be best for us after a hundred years? Although people argue that adopting a codified constitution would prevent corruption in the Parliament, the people should be happy to leave policy decisions to their elected representatives and their judgement as they are more informed and educated about politics. They should trust them to govern the country as they wish because it was the people’s decision to elect them in order to do so. Democracy is regarded as the rule of the people, and therefore the executive branch should be able to create the laws and policies that the public have elected them to make in order to satisfy their wishes. An uncodified constitution is able to achieve this much more efficiently. Conversely, it can also be argued that democracy can never truly be ‘rule of the people’ because it is only the rule of the majority. For example, the EU referendum had a result of 51.9% voting to leave to 48.1% to remain. Even though the results were very narrow, Brexit is constantly regarded as “what the people want”. In this case, the “people” only applies to approximately half the population of the UK, excluding the 13 million that chose not to vote. “The will of the people” is a false construction that is used to delegitimise the opposition and shut down