Unit 7.5        Essay Completion

Look again at the examination question about the British constitution (from exercise 7.1). This time you've been given the first letters of the missing words - many of which you've also studied in the other exercises in unit 7. To check the answers, click in the circle after each word and to check the meaning and see other examples of the word, click on the gap.   

It is often said that the United Kingdom has an ‘unwritten constitution’.  What is meant by this?

The constitutions of many countries are com                        a single document res                       the powers of governments over their citizens. In the US, for example, certain policies couldn't be imp                       , even by elected bodies, without ame                                to the constitution. Those see                          such a document in the United Kingdom will be disappointed. Hen                    , it might be inf                            that there is no legal res                         on the power of the British Government. 

However, more than 100 years ago, writers such as Walter Bagehot argued that the lack of a written constitution shouldn't be per                    as an omi                        since what seems to be an entirely unregulated system actually con                             an  und                               set of conventions and documents which have evolved over the centuries and can be considered an 'unwritten constitution'. Although some of its com                                 , such as Acts of Parliament and European Union Laws, are written, the ‘Constitution’ as a whole is not written down and many questions of government in the UK are open to  int                               . It could be said that the British constitution has acq                                  more of a written character over the last thirty years because of the imp                               of Britain ’s membership of the European Union - an ent                         created by treaties rather than the slow evolution which characterised the British system.

[ Back ] [ Home ] [ Up ]