Unitary Government at Uk

By:
Md. Zubair Kasem Khan.

Master of Comparative Laws(MCL)
Matric No.: G1110969.
International Islamic University Malaysia.
 Definition of Unitary Form of Government.
 Characteristics of Unitary form of Government.
 Structural Characteristics of United Kingdom.
 Variants that can be identified among Unitary.
Governments.
 A Unitary Government may be defined as one in which the
powers are concentrated in the hands of a Central Government.
There may be local governments, but they are not free from the
control of the central government. They are the creation or
derive their powers from the central government.
 In other words, the governments of the constituent unite

ultimately derives their authority from the central Government.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Bangladesh, Belgium,
Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy,
Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Switzerland etc are the examples of
a unitary form of country.
 In a Unitary form of Govt. there is no division of
constitutional powers, except that there may be the
delegation of authority by the central government to the
local one.
 The central government holds the supreme authority.
 A unitary government may have unwritten and flexible

constitution.
 The judiciary in the unitary form, does not possess any

powers to administer the government, decides disputes
that may crop up between the central and provincial
governments.
 Great Britain is a Constitutional Monarchy and a
Parliamentary Democracy. The type of constitution is
Unitary in nature. There is no single document that
represents as codified provisions of a complte
Constitution. That’s why, the UK is considered as the
unique of having unwritten constitution in the world.
 Head of the State = = => The Monarch (Queen).
 Head of the Government= = => Her Majesty's Government (The
Prime Minister).
 The Executive powers: The Prime Minister (on behalf of and by
the consent of the Monarch), as well as by the devolved
Governments of Scotland and Wales, and the Northern
Ireland Executives.
 The Legislative power: It vested in two chambers of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom(the House of Commons and
the House of Lords), as well as in the Scottish parliament and
Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies.
 The Judiciary: it is independent of the executive and the
legislature.
 The British Parliament is Bicameral, that is there are two houses or
chambers The House of Commons and the House of Lords, together
with the Monarch, make up Parliament. Parliament passes laws,
approves taxation and debates the major issues of the day.
 The Monarch # The Queen Elizabeth-II,

The House of Lords #(Not fixed)currently there are around 830
members.
The House of Commons # comprises 650 Members of Parliament(MP).
 Much of the work of Parliament is done in Committees rather than on

the floor of the chamber. The House of Commons has two types of
committee:
 Select Committees : Select Committees are appointed for the lifetime
of a Parliament, 'SHADOW' the work of a particular Government
Department, conduct investigations, receive written and oral evidence,
and issue reports. Membership is made up only of backbenchers and
reflects proportionately the balance of the parties in the Commons.
 General Committees or Standing Committees: General Committees are

temporary bodies, most of them Public Bill Committees, formed to
examine the detail of a particular piece of proposed legislation and
consider amendments to the Bill.
 Finally there are some Joint Committees of the Commons and the
Lords.
 The difficulty raises in having an unwritten constitution is that, there is
no single document which sets out how the state works and where the
powers lies. Instead, we must consider a variety of sources which
provide the rules governing how the state should operate.
The Constitution.
Ordinary Special
Sources. Sources.
Constitutional Constitutional
Statutes. Conventions.
Constitutional Royal
Cases. Prerogative.
Ordinary Sources:
Ordinary sources are those rules which also have application in other
areas of law. It can be classified under two heads-
Constitutional Statutes: Although the constitution of the UK is
“UNWRITTEN”, the existence of Constitutional Statutes means that there
are a large number of sources of constitutional law(Acts of Parliament)
which are, indeed, written. Such Acts may set out specific powers of the
state or, alternatively, provide protections for the citizen. Some
Constitutional Statutes are- Act of Union with Scotland 1707; Bill of
Rights 1689
Constitutional Cases/Common Law: The role of the common law within
the Constitution means that, there are constitutional issues where the
courts seek to restrict the powers of the state. Some cases are-
Entick Vs. Carrington (1765) 19 State 1029
Duport Steel Ltd. And others Vs. Sirs and others (1980) 1 All ER 529.
Congreve Vs. Home Office (1976) QB 629.
Special Sources:
Specific sources of law refers those sources of law which are particular
to Constitutional and Administrative Law. The key to understanding
how they operate is to recognize that, their origins lie, not in
Parliament, but in the History Of England. These sources are-
Royal Prerogative: This was defined by Dicey as “ the residue of

discretionary or arbitrary authority…..legally left in the Crown…..the
remaining portion of the Crown’s original authority (See Dicey 1885).
This can be put into two categories such as-
Foreign Prerogatives: Ratify & Make Treaties, Declare & War Peace
Domestic Prerogatives: Appoint a Prime Minister, Grant Honors…
Constitutional Conventions: These are Customs Or Historical

Practices which determine what will happen in certain circumstances.
As with Royal Prerogative, Conventions are Not Enforceable by the
Courts and so are described as “Non-legal” rules.
 In considering how the constitution of UK operates,
there are a number of general themes or principles
that must be recognized which includes-
 The Parliamentary Sovereignty,
 The Separation of Powers and
 The Rule of Law.

The Parliamentary Sovereignty
The most common applied definition of Parliamentary Sovereignty
comes from Dicey, who suggested three key rules-
Parliament Con Make And Unmake Any Law:
 His Majesty’s Declaration of Abdication Act 1936.
 Parliament Act 1911.
Parliament Cannot Bind Its Successors:

 Union With Ireland Act 1800.
 Vauxhall Estate Ltd Vs. Liverpool Corporation [1932] 1 KB 733
No-one Can Question Parliament’s Laws:

 Although the rule speaks of “NO-ONE” the key issue is whether
the Courts can Challenge Parliament ….? Under the mode of
Parliamentary Sovereignty, the answer will be …..“NO”
 British Railways Board Vs. Pinki [1976] AC 765.
The Separation of Powers
Separation of power requires different people to work
within the three organs(Executive, Legislative and
Judiciary) of States and the organs of States act to
restrain each other and prevent the other institution
from exceeding their powers.
 M Vs. Home Office [1994] 1 AC 377.
 R Vs. Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex

parte Anderson [2003] 1 AC 837.
 R Vs. Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex

parte Fire Brigades Union [1995] 2 AC 513.
The Rule of Law
The term Rule of Law is a set of underlying principles
which are-
• No Arbitrary • Law Should Be General, • Representative

Power Open And Clear. Government.
• State Powers • Law Should Be Stable. • No
Should Be • Judiciary Should Be Retrospective
Specified In Law Independent. Law.
• No Punishment • Law Should Not Be • Respect For
Except Breach Biased. Human Rights
Of Law • Courts Are Able To • The Right To
• Law Applies To Review State Powers. Challenge The
All Persons • Courts Shall Be State.
Equally. Accessible. • Right To A Fair
Trial.
Notwithstanding contained in the previous part of this
presentation, we must keep it in our mind that, the govt.
system of UK is not similar with all other Unitary country’s
govt. system. In fact, there is no single ideal form of Unitary
system. The variants that can be distinguished from others
are-
 The degree of Cultural and National diversity…Bangladesh,
France, Iceland, Italy[monoculture], the United Kingdom,
on the other hand [multicultural] country.
 Single country, single State[ Ex- Bangladesh, Philippines,

Switzerland etc] on the other hand, Single country, multi-
states[ The UK, Russia, Canada etc].
 Some country have Constitutional Supremacy [
Bangladesh, Philippines] on the other hand, some
country have Parliamentary Sovereignty [ The UK,
Russia etc.]
 Most of the times, the President is considered as the
head of the country as well as the Parliament [
Bangladesh], on the other hand, the Monarch hold the
highest power over the country as well as the
Parliament [ the UK].
 Most of the single state country has Unicameral
Parliament [Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia etc.], others
are Bicameral parliament.
 The procedures for formal and informal adoption and
amendment of the constitution [ Flexible / Rigid].
 Distribution of powers among the central and local
governments.

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By:

Md. Zubair Kasem Khan.

 Characteristics of Unitary form of Government.

 Structural Characteristics of United Kingdom.

 Variants that can be identified among Unitary.

 In other words, the governments of the constituent unite

 The central government holds the supreme authority.

 A unitary government may have unwritten and flexible

 The judiciary in the unitary form, does not possess any

 The Monarch # The Queen Elizabeth-II,

 Much of the work of Parliament is done in Committees rather than on

 General Committees or Standing Committees: General Committees are

Royal Prerogative: This was defined by Dicey as “ the residue of

Constitutional Conventions: These are Customs Or Historical

 The Parliamentary Sovereignty,

 The Separation of Powers and

 The Rule of Law.

Parliament Cannot Bind Its Successors:

No-one Can Question Parliament’s Laws:

 M Vs. Home Office [1994] 1 AC 377.

 R Vs. Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex

 R Vs. Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex

• No Arbitrary • Law Should Be General, • Representative

 Single country, single State[ Ex- Bangladesh, Philippines,

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