On the Unwritten Constitution

Extract

The subject matter of our discussion today is entitled “Written or Unwritten Constitutions”—but the real issue before us is the supremacy of the legislature. A written constitution is normally thought and spoken of as a curb upon the supremacy of the legislature; and a constitution under which the legislature is supreme, is normally called “unwritten”. I shall not presume to advise you in Israel as to whether you should give yourselves a written constitution: all I can venture to do is to give you some personal reflections from my own experience, as one who has lived his life and administered the law under an unwritten constitution.

So far as constitutional law deals with the structure of government—how laws are to be made, how they are to be put into effect, how disputes as to rights and obligations under the law are to be decided—it may or may not, in a unicameral legislature, be advisable to require that amendments of what I may call the structure of the constitution should be by a particular majority. Opinions on this may be divided, and I am not going to take any stand. What I should like to give some reflections upon is the proposal that there should be a “basic law” setting out the fundamental human rights and liberties, and what the status of that law should be.