{"id":327,"date":"2019-11-11T11:13:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T11:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cranleigh.org\/politics\/?p=327"},"modified":"2023-11-15T08:39:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:39:23","slug":"the-problems-with-codifying-a-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cranleigh.org\/politics\/2019\/11\/11\/the-problems-with-codifying-a-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"The problems with codifying a constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Daisy’s excellent article on the current civil disorder in Chile hinted<\/a> at some of the problems of producing a codified constitution. Noting that the demonstrations are left-wing in nature (against the centre-right government of President Pi\u00f1era), she highlighted how many in Chile regard the constitution as having a pronounced neo-liberal bias (effectively a Thatcherite bias: General Pinochet, the military ruler who was essentially the architect of the constitution, was close to Margaret Thatcher regarding economics). The left-wing demonstrators have a problem with a constitution that bakes in safeguards for private property and entrepreneurship, but has little to say on workers\u2019 rights, welfare, and other socialist causes. Drafted by right wing authors and ratified in a 1980 referendum of dubious legitimacy, it is small wonder that this document has come under criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet we could flip the whole scenario around. We could\nperhaps take a look at a left-wing constitution \u2013 the Venezuelan one for\nexample, which entrenches the right to free state healthcare for all, and\ncontains clauses geared towards the creation of cooperative ownership of businesses.\nI am not aware whether any of the mass demonstrations against the government of\nNicolas Maduro have demanded constitutional changes, but under the hard-line socialist\nChavista<\/em> government, Venezuela has\nbecome a bankrupt failed state in spite of its vast oil reserves, and the\ngovernment\u2019s legitimacy is bust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this has relevance to the debate on whether or not the\nUK should codify its constitution. The thing about the two constitutions discussed\nabove is that both have a clear ideological bias in different directions. Both\nwere clearly rigged in their creation, and neither command a deep legitimacy.\nThe process of codification itself was flawed, and the contents of the document\nare thus not neutral. They reflect their authors\u2019 political goals and\nprejudices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would be exactly the same with us. Imagine a decision\nto provide an over-arching codified constitutional document for the UK. How\nwould this be done? The international model of choice seems to be some sort of\nelected constitutional convention to draft it, followed by ratification by\nreferendum. We might do something like that, or leave it to parliament to do\nthe drafting. But whatever way we did it, we would have the mother of all\narguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bill of rights. Simple surely? Not at all! The Tories would\nwant to stick to a set of simple negative freedoms along US Bill of Rights lines,\nand leave it at that. Their Thatcherite wing might look for the Chilean option,\ncementing neo-liberal ideology into the legal framework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lib Dems might endorse this, but you can bet they\u2019d also\nwant to see the entitlements of the modern liberal state entrenched in\nperpetuity as well. Education, the NHS and all that would suddenly not be\namendable or adjustable, but codified and unchallengeable. Need to raise\ntuition fees to balance the budget? Sorry, that\u2019s unconstitutional.\nPrescription charges to avoid bankrupting the NHS and the state? You can\u2019t do that\nwithout a two thirds majority in both houses of parliament and a referendum I\u2019m\nafraid, because those free prescriptions are now a codified right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour would want to go much further. Minimum wage in the\nconstitution? Entrenched Trade Union rights? Four day week? Sorry, but you\ncan\u2019t work on Friday \u2013 it violates your constitutional freedoms. They\u2019d\nprobably get Plaid Cymru to support them on all this, provided that the Welsh\nlanguage was given equal status in the constitution, and Wales had devo-max\nalong Scottish lines, codified, forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s all the identity politics and the \u201cfairness\u201d\nagenda. Equal gender pay, racial quotas, and all the other dreary paraphernalia\nof illiberal liberalism will be shoe-horned into the vast, sprawling mess of\nlegalese that will bind all future political debate to be settled by the\njudgement of the courts, not by the elected representatives and appointed\nexperts in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU? The Tories would sure as hell demand a clause that\nstated we could never again join such an organisation without a super-majority\nreferendum saying so. The Lib Dems would demand confirmation of close alignment\nwith the EU and a simple majority back-in referendum every four years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relationship between Westminster and the devolved assemblies\nneeds clarifying? You betcha! The SNP would demand devo-max, autonomy in\ntaxation and foreign policy, the right to an indy-ref every five years, and so\non. The Tories would demand final entrenchment of the existing arrangements,\nand an end to further devolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could go on, but I have probably made my point. That point\nis that \u201cbasic rights\u201d are in fact historically contingent and ideologically coloured.\nThere would be no consensus on what to put into a codified constitution.  So, if this debate emerges from its dormant condition\npost-Brexit, my opinion is that we should ignore any siren songs about\ncodification producing clarity or consensus. Both the process and the product\nwould give us just the opposite. We are far better sticking with our organic,\nflexible, developing constitution which functions on convention and mature\npolitical culture (which Britain does have, for all that the critics may carp).\nLet\u2019s follow Winston Churchill\u2019s advice, and keep b*ggering on!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Von Hayek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daisy’s excellent article on the current civil disorder in Chile hinted at some of the problems of producing a codified…
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