Writing Resources
The aim of this essay is to evaluate and discuss the extent to which constitutional Acts affect the unitary nature of the constitution In theory the constitution in the United Kingdom is unitary and there is no written constitution to control the powers of the central government However a sovereign legislative body exists which represents the ultimate law making power in the state Power is given to the Welsh Scottish and Northern Irish legislatures and to the local government under the Acts of the U K Parliament in order to fulfilling functions such as the provision of services and raising local revenue to finance such services All legislation is identified as a source of the constitution However legislation that is associated with the function and form of the state is constitutional legislation In the case of Thorburn v Sunderland City Council Laws J stated that in his opinion a constitutional statute is one which a conditions the legal relationship between citizen and the state in some general overarching manner or b enlarges or diminishes the scope of what we would now regard as fundamental constitutional rights He then proceeded by listing the Magna Carta the Bill of Rights the Acts which establish devolution and the Parliament Acts of 1991 and 1949 as constitutional In The law of the Constitution A V Dicey states that repeal is the abrogation of a previous law by the enactment of a later law The doctrines of express and implied repeal can make this possible Express repeal consists of a new Act that expressly states that it repeals the provisions of an older Act On the other hand implied repeal consists of a new Act that does not state that it expressly repeals the older Act Dicey on The Law of the Constitution stated that Parliament cannot bind its successors as to the content manner and form of subsequent legislation however in the book
