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Advantages and Disadvantages of an Unwritten Constituion Essay

Decent Essays

The advantages of an unwritten constitution far outweigh the disadvantages (40)
You must make a judgement.

A constitution is a set of rules that establish duties and functions of the government and defines the basic principles to which society must conform. In this essay I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of an unwritten constitution and show that I agree with this statement.
On one hand, if a written constitution was introduced it would affect the power of government, relationship between judges and politician and individual freedoms and rights. One argument is that a written constitution would make the rules of the country clearer, as constitutional rules would be collected together and put into a single document and …show more content…

Unwritten constitutions are flexible as they are not entrenched, and flexibility is extremely important and useful as the modern day is constantly changing.
The strongest argument in favour of a written constitution is that it would protect the rights of its citizens and individual liberty would be more securely protected. The rights would become more clearly defined due to a written constitution and perhaps easier to enforce than an unwritten constitution because it is difficult to be completely sure of what your rights are, these rights can be defined through a bill of rights in the written constitution.
However, just because there is a written constitution does not ensure the rights of a countries citizens will receive their rights – rather, it could lead to an elective dictatorship which might further restrict rights and may go on to persecute some of its citizens, which happened in Germany and resulted in the Second World War.
Another disadvantage of a written constitution is that there may be tyranny within the judiciary. Judges are unelected and socially do not represent the population which could lead to a democratic deficit because of a lack of democratic legitimacy, as the public could be subjected to opinions which they do not agree with but have been implemented due to the preferences of senior judges.
On the other

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