United Kingdom Constitution
Research by: Richard Bourne
Page last updated: May 15, 2006
The CPSU is collaborating with the Citizenship Foundation and the Constitution Unit, University College, London to prepare a pocket guide to the UK constitution. The Citizenship Foundation, which has been carrying forward the work over the last year, will publish Inside Britain: a guide to the UK constitution in July 2006. The Department for Constitutional Affairs commissioned the CPSU to undertake an inception stage, from November 2004 to February 2005, and then commissioned the Citizenship Foundation, with its special expertise with young people, to transfer the outline into an exciting, accessible publication.
The UK is one of only two Commonwealth countries which does not have a written constitution, but it has helped negotiate many of these documents at independence. Now, with compulsory citizenship classes in schools in England, and ceremonies to welcome new British citizens, there is a need to provide a guide which is readable and comprehensible, even though the UK constitution is constantly evolving and technically "unwritten."
The CPSU was inspired to develop this idea by the pocket guide to the South African constitution, published in 1996, and was assisted by several London High Commissions at the research phase.