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  • 14 - In Search of the Constitution

  • from Part II - Institutional Pressures and Contested Legitimacy
  • Edited by Oran Doyle, Trinity College Dublin, Aileen McHarg, University of Durham, Jo Murkens, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Book:
    The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom
    Published online:
    17 August 2021
    Print publication:
    26 August 2021, pp 313-335

  • Summary

    Over the last 150 years, the standing that the British constitution once held in the minds of the people has suffered a remarkable decline. Uncertainty about its supposedly fixed characteristics has been such that it is now extremely difficult to present an account of its nature and meaning in an impartial manner. Against this background, this chapter presents a simplified history in which, over six successive phases and in response to prevailing political concerns of the period, the meaning of ‘constitution’ changes in subtle ways. Reflections on this development helps us set contemporary constitutional controversies in an appropriate context. It also enables to see more clearly the significance of a basic question which modern constitutional development had hitherto managed to suppress: the constitution of what?