Past British Experience

Abstract

Because Britain has an unwritten constitution, the management of her affairs is at the mercy of precedent. The rules governing proper constitutional conduct are based on what was done, or thought to have been done, last time — if there was a last time. Unfortunately there is no constitutional court, no established authority to determine what was actually done last time or whether it remains relevant. Historians, constitutional lawyers and politicians each form their own ideas of what essential principles were at stake in the key examples from the past and then each lays down what should now be regarded as correct.