Works of Authority

One of the peculiarities of the UK constitution is the need to consult works by authors who are considered to be authorities on constitutional issues. These works help to define what is constitutionally ‘proper’ or ‘correct’; although they are certainly written, they are not legally enforceable. Such works are needed for two reasons:

 • There are many gaps and confusions in the UK’s uncodified constitution with, particularly in the case of conventions, uncertainty about how general rules and principles should be applied in practice. 

• These authoritative works carry out the job of interpretation – saying what the constitution actually means – that, in a codified constitutional system, would be carried out by senior judges. Nevertheless, as they lack legal authority, these constitutional works are only consulted and followed if they are considered to be relevant and their authors respected. Their status is therefore often subject to debate. Key works of constitutional authority include: 

In addition, authoritative opinions and international agreements make up the British Constitution 

Walter Bagehot’s The English Constitution (1867). Bagehot sought, among other things, to distinguish between ‘dignified’ and ‘efficient’ aspects of the Constitution. For example, the monarch was the dignified part of the Constitution, having no real political power by the time the book was written, while the cabinet (memorably defined by Bagehot as ‘A combining committee — a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the state to the executive part of the state’) held most of the real power, emerging as it does from the House of Commons, the ‘ultimate authority in the English Constitution’ 

A. V. Dicey’s Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885). Dicey was an Oxford law professor and sought to explain and identify the main characteristics of the British Constitution. This included identifying not only his ‘twin pillars’ of democracy, but also conventions such as ‘The King must assent to, or (as it is inaccurately expressed) cannot “veto” any bill passed by the two Houses of Parliament.’ He also strongly asserted the notion of parliamentary sovereignty, commenting that parliament was ‘an absolutely KEY CONCEPT, Conventions, Unwritten rules and procedures mostly concerned with parliament that facilitate the smooth running of the Constitution. When conventions are broken it can often lead to problems and deadlock. 1 The nature and sources of the British Constitution 7 sovereign legislature’ and that under the English Constitution it possessed ‘the right to make or unmake any law whatever’. He memorably reinforced this point by quoting from the eighteenth-century Swiss political theorist Jean-Louis de Lolme, that ‘parliament (in England) can do everything but make a woman a man and a man a woman’. 

Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice first published in 1844 May’s book, the most recent update of which was published in 2019, is often referred to as ‘the Bible of parliamentary procedure’ and is regularly referenced by the speaker of the Commons when making rulings about the conduct of parliamentary business and debates. It includes the standing orders of each chamber, historical precedence and key rulings by the speaker. While this might all sound arcane and technical, it does spring to public prominence on occasion. For example, in March 2019 then speaker John Bercow cited a 1604 convention to prevent Prime Minister Theresa May from bringing her Brexit withdrawal deal before the Commons for a third time in that particular parliamentary session. 

The Cabinet Manual (2010) This was produced by the Cabinet Office at the start of the coalition government (the first such government for over 60 years) to offer a guide as to how the British government and parliament would work. It covers a wide range of topics in its 110 pages, including ministerial conduct, cabinet composition and the scrutiny of government by parliament. The project was initiated by former prime minister Gordon Brown. In the Foreword to the document, David Cameron explained its purpose as follows: ‘The Cabinet Manual sets out the internal rules and procedures under which the government operates. For the first time the conventions determining how the government operates are transparently set out in one place. Codifying and publishing these sheds welcome light on how the government interacts with the other parts of our democratic system.’ During a speech in 2011, then cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, who was mostly responsible for the first draft, described the manual as: ‘A guide to laws, conventions and rules on the operation of government. It is to guide but not to direct. It will have no formal legal status and it is not meant to be legally binding…It is not intended to be a written constitution.