There are significant differences between both the key features and the importance of constitutions.

Discuss with reference to two political systems that you have studied. (20 marks)

Both the United Kingdom and the United states have constitutions. This outlines their countries morals and the rights and laws that their citizens have access to and have to abide to. While we are able to split both constitutions into their origins and development, their key principles, their nature and their role of judiciary and constitution in safeguarding individual rights. This essay intends to argue that both the British constitution and the American constitution have differing kay features ad importance’s.

Both the British and United States of America have very varying origins and development methods to their constitution. The UK constitution has been formed over a mass amount of time and which started with the Magna Carter in 1215. Whereas the US constitution was created out of a revolution out of the desire to remove itself from the autocratic British monarchy. The other major difference between the UK and US’s constitution development is that the US’s constitution was fully formed in 1789. This is important because it means that the US’s constitution was pretty much formed and completed instantly and therefore is pretty set-in stone meaning that is it hard for individuals and powerful figures to change the constitution with amendments. This is apparent as since it was created there has only been 10 amendments with the last one being made in 1992. Whereas the UK’s constitution is able to be amended with a simple parliamentary vote. In evaluation this means that not only how the constitutions were created but how they are constantly developing in some cases are very differing between the UK and the US but in addition the way their constitution is led is different. This is because the UK government is formed under a constitutional monarchy which means that the monarchy’s legal power is exercised by the government ministers that they appoint. However the US constitution is led by the current president which is the head of the state.

Both the UK and US also having different key principles which are exercised through their constitution’s. One of the UK’s key principles is parliamentary sovereignty which is exercised in Westminster through the supreme law-making body. Another key principle held by the UK is the rule of law meaning that no one is above the law. The US also has many key principles such as liberty, individualism, equality, representative democracy, limited government, and state rights. Due to these key principles it has allowed amendments to be made as well as the bill of rights to be put in place for example amendments 13 which was to band and end slavery. This is important for both constitutions as it helps to determine if they are a unitary state or a federal state. The UK therefore is a unitary state as countries political power is concentrated in the center in this case being Westminster. The UK is a unitary state which means that although they have county’s the MP’s have very little and limited power and has meant that the Westminster has devolved its power to the neighboring countries Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Thus allows the countries to have some power, for example Scotland has the devolved powers of education and healthcare along with others however don’t have a say in the overall powers held by Westminster such as immigration. However the US is a federal state meaning that they give specific power to all their 50 states which means that they are able to choose their own police and are able to vote in laws of their own into their state for example the state of Colorado legalized the use of cannabis in 2014. Showing that both countries constitutions leads to very different distribution of power.

The UK and US constitution also having differing interpretations of the nature of their constitutions.  The UK constitution isn’t intrenched and it is able to be amended by a parliamentary vote and has many different documents both published and online which show the UK’s constitution and rules. This means that the UK constitution is codified. Whereas the US constitution has all of their rules collected and put into a single authoritative document. This means that the US constitution is intrenched. This is important as due to weather or not the country’s constitution is intrenched or not determines how easy it is to alter and amend the constitution. Therefore in evaluation because the UK’s constitution is not intrenched this means that it is a lot easier for the government to amend the constitution as it can be done by a simple parliamentary vote however in comparison it is much harder for the US constitution to be amended. This is because it can just be voted on weather or not a new law should be put in place or a law should be removed the supreme courts are the only people who are able to decide if actions taken by the president or individuals are unconstitutional. Leading to any alternations to the constitution.

Finally both the Constitution of the UK and the US have differing interpretations of their role of judiciary and constitution in safeguarding individual rights. The UK has the ‘Human Rights Act’ of 1998 which was statured into UK law which allows all citizens of the UK to be protected under. However the US doesn’t have the Human Rights Act but instead the bill of rights and judicial review helps to protect the people as it allows them to challenge legal decisions or actions. This is important because both the UK and the US have one similarity, even if it is only to a certain extent, they both have supreme courts. The British supreme court isn’t able to strike down acts which are viewed as unconstitutional where the US supreme court is able to as previously explained. However the British supreme court is able to do judicial review even though they are seen as less significant than the US supreme court. In evaluation this further amplifies how both constitutions are able to protect their citizens and their rights as in the UK a young girl who originally from Zambia who had lived in the UK since the age of 6 based off of her father’s student visa applied for a university loan so that she could be able to attend the university of Northern Cumbia, but her application was denied. Obviously, she was not happy with this and her case was taken up by the supreme court as a breach of article 2 of the Human Rights Act which state the right to education and the court ended up ruling this and agreeing that it was a breach of her right to education. Then in June 2020 the US supreme court ruled the language of the civil rights act of 1964 which prohibits sex discrimination applied to the discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community. This was massively significant as it meant that a member of the community was no not able to be fired for their sexual orientation or sexual preferences.

In conclusion the UK and US constitutions have different features and importance’s when compared against each other. On the one hand while the origin of the UK constitution has been evolving over a mass amount of time on the other the US’s constitution was created almost instantaneously. There are also massive comparisons which can be made in relation to the key principles of the constitutions as the UK constitution is based and guided by a monarchy which uses the government minister to exercise their power and the UK constitution is led and acted upon by the head of state, the president, as well as this they also have differing ideas as they have different key principles. The nature of the UK constitution is easily amended and can be amended almost at any point via using a simple parliamentary vote whereas on balance the US constitution is very hard to be amended and can only be amended by the supreme court if they rule an action as unconstitutional which can then lead to an amendment such as amendment 13 to end and ban slavery in America. Finally the UK and the US constitutions have different features and interests when it comes to the role of judiciary and constitution in safeguarding individual rights. This is as the UK does have a supreme court which is able for those and rule a case which is see as unconstitutional but are unable to solely strike down an act which they view to be unconstitutional whereas on comparison the US supreme court is the only power in America which is able to overturn anything seen as unconstitutional as although this isn’t done based off the Human Rights Act that the UK uses it can be based off of the Bill of rights and judicial review.