he United Kingdom does not have a codified constitution like other countries tend to have. Instead of a constitution, certain documents stand to serve as replacements in lieu of one. These texts and their provisions therein are considered to be constitutional, such that the "constitution of the United Kingdom" or "British constitution" may refer to a number of historical and momentous laws and principles like the Acts of Union of 1707 and the Acts of Union of 1800 which formulate the country's body politic. Thus the term "UK constitution" is sometimes said to refer to an "unwritten" or uncodified constitution.[1][2] The British constitution primarily draws from four sources: statute law (laws passed by the legislature), common law (laws established through court judgments), parliamentary conventions, and works of authority.[1] Similar to a constitutional document, it also concerns both the relationship between the individual and the state and the functioning of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.
Since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the concept of parliamentary sovereignty has been the bedrock of the British legislative constitution. The statutes passed by Parliament are the supreme and final source of law in the UK.[3] It follows that Parliament can change the constitution simply by passing new statutes through Acts of Parliament.[4] There has been some debate about whether parliamentary sovereignty remained intact in the light of the UK's membership in the European Union (EU),[5] an argument that was used by proponents of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum (Brexit).[6] Another core constitutional principle, the rule of law, is a phrase that was popularized by legal scholar Albert Dicey in his 1885 work Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, which is recognized by the British Parliament as a work of authority on the constitution.[1]
