A month ago today, the Supreme Court annulled the prorogation of Parliament. From a constitutional perspective, it seems a political earthquake, the aftershocks of which are still being felt. But the tectonic plates of British politics have been shifting for a while. Ongoing paralysis over Brexit, Boris Johnson’s unusual prorogation, and subsequent legal challenges in England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have brought the problems of an ancient and unwritten constitution to the fore. Britain now finds itself in the midst of what American legal theorist Bruce Ackerman in his masterly We The People calls a ‘constitutional moment’ – a period of heightened public debate about the need for foundational political reform.
In the days after Parliament was prorogued, the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, announced that he had been persuaded of the need to transition from a conventional framework (long seen as the foundation of British Parliamentary democracy) towards a written constitution. And he was not alone. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Prime Minister’s use of ill-defined prerogative powers was ‘unlawful’, voices from both sides of the House were raised in support of a complete overhaul of the existing political system. On the day the Commons reconvened, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox expressed his sympathy for Green Party MP Caroline Lucas’s declaration that the time had come to ‘consider urgent proposals for a written constitution’.
What is the best way to draft a new constitution?
The growing demand for reform raises one really important question: what is the best way to draft a new constitution?
