The British Constitution: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #349

by Martin Loughlin

Beginning with the Magna Carta in 1215, a number of documents--not one single document as in the United States--have constituted the British constitution. What are the main characteristics of Britain's peculiar constitutional arrangements? How has the British constitution altered in response to the changing nature of its state--from England, to Britain, to the United Kingdom? What impact has the UK's developing relations with the European Union caused? These are some of the questions that legal scholar Martin Loughlin investigates in this Very Short Introduction. He traces how the British constitution has grown organically, in response to changes in the economic, political, and social environment. By considering the nature and authority of the current British constitution, and placing it in the context of others, Loughlin reveals how the traditional idea of a constitution came to be retained, what problems have been generated as a result of adapting a traditional approach in a
modern political world, and what the future holds for the British constitution.

About the Series:

Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

Genres: Politics, Law, Nonfiction, History, British Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2013

About the author

Martin Loughlin is Professor of Public Law. He was educated at LSE, the University of Warwick and Harvard Law School and held chairs at the Universities of Glasgow and Manchester before returning to LSE in 2000. He was a member of the Editorial Committee of The Modern Law Review from 1987 to 2010, serving as General Editor between 2002-07, and now sits on its Advisory Board. Martin was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2011 and in 2015 was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of Edinburgh. Between 2000 and 2002 he held a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, in 2007-08 was a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, in 20012-13 held a Law & Public Affairs Fellowship at Princeton University, in 2016-17 was EURIAS Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, and in Jan-March 2019 was a MacCormick Fellow at Edinburgh University. Martin has been a Visiting Professor at many law schools including Osgoode Hall, Paris II, Pennsylvania, Renmin University (Beijing), and Toronto.

Reviews

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quality of these Very Short Introductions ranges immensely, as does their complexity. This one, I feel, is suitable for readers preprogrammed with at least a basic knowledge of the topic. Certain passages needed a patient editor, as the syntax and semantics rendered one or two sentences incomprehensible. All in all, though, Loughlin provides a comprehensive – albeit rapidly dating – snapshot of the constitutional arrangements up to 2013.

[Rinstinkt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Një hyrje e shkurtër në Kushtetutën Britanike, si te gjithë librat e tjerë të kësaj serie nuk do jenë kurrë në gjendje që të shtjelojnë të gjitha aspektet dhe këndvështrimet që rrethojnë një çështje të caktuar.

Në këtë rast bëhet fjalë për Kushtetutën Britanike për të cilën debati nëse ekziston në të vërtetë apo jo është i vjetër. Edhe libri mbi këtë debat fillon, a është kjo kushtetutë një dokument apo koleksion dokumentesh të mirëfilla apo thjeshtë një ide?

Autori më tej përshkruan elemente të ndryshme, apo rryma të ndryshmebrenda vet kushtetutës, Qeverisjen Parlamentare, Shtetin Anglez dhe Liritë Civile. Për çdo element përshkruhet historia e zhvillimit dhe rritjes së influencës së tij.

Flitet po ashtu edhe për historinë e zhvillimit të territorit të Mbretërisë së BAshkruar por edhe çështje të Perandorisë, dhe më tej edhe çështje më moderne si Unioni Europian.
Përfundohet me një diskutim mbi drejtimin e ksuhtetutës në avenir.

Pra një historik i shkurtër i Kushtetutës Britanike, që nuk përqëndrohet edhe aq në funksionin e saj të mirëfilltë por më shumë në historikun e saj dhe në evolucionin e saj me kalimin e kohës.

[Valerie Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that this was ALL horrible, but it was soooo boring & I didn’t like the tone and worst of all, I had no baseline knowledge going in, which I don’t think the author assumed. I needed a really straightforward intro and instead he just jumped in

[Nick Imrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book from the OUP's Very Short Introduction Series. Loughlin does his best to give a clear description of the British Constitution - which is no easy task! The book concludes:

so we end as we began, not with answers but with a new set of questions.

Certainly, if you were hoping to have the answer to 'What is the British Constitution?', you may be disappointed.

Other countries have, at some point, held a revolution, murdered their kings and tyrants, and written down a sensible description of how they want to be governed. The Brits can't even decide who they are! At various points the key players conceive of themselves as English, British, Saxon, Scottish, Irish, (the poor Welsh don't get much of a say) or even Norman. They come together through conquest or union and separate by choice. They don't just overthrow kings: they ambush them, kill them, expel them, invite them back and negotiate with them. Other nations celebrate their revolutions and constitutions as bold adventures in government. The Brits pretend that actually constitution change is a very conservative resurrection of rights they definitely always had all along. Consequently, the British Constitution is a mishmash of various habits, customs, laws, Acts and accidents.

The fact is that it doesn't really make much sense and the Brits have dealt with the problem by ignoring it, fudging it and getting testy with anyone who enquires too closely. Through-out the 20th Century more and more people have been enquiring, as the make-shift situation gradually loses the confidence of the people - not to mention the effect of joining the EU which creates several headaches about where things like legitimacy or rights even come from. So the questions is far from settled, and there are exciting times ahead as judges grow more and more active in interpreting constitutional law.

[Jacob Lines · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great stuff. The British Constitution is fascinating simply because it is a great accretion of authorities rather than one document. So to learn about the British Constitution is to learn the stories of British government rather than look at a code or statute book. After all, as the book quotes Disraeli, “England is governed not by logic but by Parliament.” This book tells those stories very ably. Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights – it’s in there. It explains that the British Constitution is an outgrowth of the common law method applied to government – the British method has been to declare and corroborate the old, not to make the new. It tells the story of the growth of parliamentary government, the expansion and contraction of the Empire, and the effect of the EU on the British Constitution. It never fails to be interesting.

The brilliance of the British Constitution is that it is all about experience. The reason that it works is because it was not formulated by philosophers in an ivory tower. It was forged through the hard school of experience. It is based on what has worked in the past, not on what logic predicts. That means that it provides stability and flexible. When something ceases to work, a new compromise can be hammered out by politicians battling over it. That makes it a system worth studying, and this is a very good introduction to the system.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to The British Constitution, although it was published before we left the EU so there is a whole new book that needs to be written, especially since the current government seems to take a very odd view of 'the rule of law', which gets mentioned a lot.

It does a great job of giving historical context to the changing views of and changes to the British Constitution. Loughlin's language is clear and he never strays into jargon or legal incomprehensibility.

The best things about the 'Very Short Introductions' is that having done an interesting job in covering the core parts of what you need to know they have a great 'Further Reading' section which gives you more books to explore. The way they're structured also allows you to focus on the topics you have the most interest in.

This made an excellent double-bill alongside 'A Very Short Introduction to the US Constitution'.

The other thing this book does is make you aware that Britain is long overdue a review of its constitution to strengthen the defences of subjects against their governments.

[Mike Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers the roadmap of how the unwritten British constitution has moved (progressed would be incorrect) from being somewhat understandable in the mid 19th century to what could be described as somewhat of a jumble today. Possibly there are some topics that are too convoluted for a short introduction. I would have preferred a more positive conclusion, but that is not the fault of the author.

[Abbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very, very dense. I don't think much of this sunk in or will stick, but parts were interesting and informative. Perhaps a bit too much jargon for a short introduction.

[Cole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dry, boring and scarcely sticks to the point of the book.

Extremely disappointed in VSI books as they tend to be quite boring and too subjective in many cases.

[claire :)]

snore

[R Moba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably doesn't exist.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, but not really the "textbook" account that I was looking to read...

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

this did not feel Very Short
will reread

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The legal scholar Martin Loughlin published The British Constitution: A Very Short Introduction in 2023. The book has illustrations, including cartoons. The book contains a section entitled “References and further reading” (Loughlin 116-121). The British Constitution is “a historical, customary, evolutionary-i.e., traditional” (Loughlin 7). By comparison, the Constitution of the United States is a written Constitution that, since 1787, has only been amended twenty-seven times (Loughlin 10). The country of France has adopted at least twelve different constitutions since the Revolution of 1789 and has experienced dictatorship, monarchy, and five republics” (Loughlin 10). Loughlin writes a constitution “suggests that institutions of government are infused with values and modes of conduct that fix the meaning of those rules and express a distinct way of organizing political life (Loughlin 1). The British Constitution was created before writing a constitution became common during the Age of Enlightenment (Loughlin 13-14). Historian John Robertson writes that the Age of Enlightenment is an intellectual movement identifying with “18th Century Europe” (Robertson 1). The book has an index. The political revolutionary era of Great British history was before the Age of Enlightenment. The political revolutionary era of English history was in the 17th Century (Loughlin 14). Great Britain is the combined government of nations of the British Isles, except for Ireland, since 1920 (Loughlin 68). Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom (Loughlin 68). Loughlin writes, “As the largest, most powerful on the islands, the English have always sought to dominate the Irish, Scots, and Welsh, primarily to maintain the security of their state” (Loughlin 64). I read the book on my Kindle. The book looks at many different aspects of the British Constitution. Loughlin’s short book on the British Constitution is well done.
Works Cited:
Robertson, John. 2015. The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.

[Kayli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The British Constitution: A Very Short introduction is all about, you guessed it, the British constitution and its very organic nature. I picked up this book while attempting to understand British politics and was very pleased with what I got. His chapters cover as follows: 1) What constitution? 2) Writing the constitution 3) Parliamentary government 4) The expansion and contradiction of the English state 5) Civil Liberty and 6) Wither the Constitution? Each chapter breaks down and centralizes the question of the British constitution, mainly from a legal standpoint, into bitesize pieces focusing on economics, politics, and a social environment. I found Loughlin's style palatable and well-paced, not once did I feel overwhelmed with information. I was first introduced to 'A Very Short Introduction' series my freshmen year of college and that's usually where I start when it comes to a new project. I highly suggest this book, and the series itself, if you are trying to get a basic handle on British politics. I also feel it important to mention I read this alongside 'British Politics: A Very Short Introduction' by Tony Wright and, though its not the intention, the two books read well together.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book on the British constitution.

Of course, we don’t actually have a codified or written constitution (along with Israel and New Zealand - all other countries do, most famously the USA).

The book traces the development of our constitution over time looking at the role of the monarch, government, parliament, the judiciary and the people.

The author concludes by suggesting that the law is increasingly driving and fashioning our constitution and that this is not necessarily a good thing.