The Democratic Case for a Written Constitution

Inaugural Lecture

Speaker: Professor Jeff King (UCL)
Chair: Lord Pannick QC (Blackstone Chambers)
Series: Current Legal Problems 2017-18

About the lecture

The United Kingdom is one of three countries in the world without a written constitution.  Many argue that a written and entrenched constitution is required in order to safeguard rights against majoritarian overreach.  In this lecture, the speaker rather argues that a written constitution is required to fully achieve democratic self-government.  Only through the adoption of a written constitution can the people exercise true authorship over the most fundamental rules of the polity.

The issue of codification is hardly new, and there are several arguments against such a reform.  Some think it a bid to entrench elite interests of the liberal variety. Others take it to be rationalist folly in a constitution whose history proves the wisdom of incrementalism in public affairs.  Most critics think it will judicialise political disputes. And right-minded people everywhere should fear the ossification that attends strict constitutional amendment procedures.

But the democratic case for a written constitution survives all these concerns. Some of the objections are simply misguided, while others can be accommodated by sound process and substance.  None come close to refuting the potent democratic case for a right to political self-authorship. The speaker will illustrate these claims through a consideration of the theory and practice of constitutionalism, and an examination of recent developments in UK public law, and in the politics of Brexit, devolution and parliamentary reform. 

About the speaker

Jeff King joined the UCL Laws as a Senior Lecturer in 2011, and has been Professor of Law since 2016. He is the Co-Editor of Current Legal Problems, formerly the Co-Editor of the UK Constitutional Law Blog, and sits on the Editorial Committee of Public Law as well as the General Council of the International Society of Public Law (ICON Society).  Prior to coming to UCL, he was a Fellow and Tutor in law at Balliol College, and CUF Lecturer for the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (2008-2011), a Research Fellow and Tutor in public law at Keble College, Oxford (2007-08), and an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York City (2003-04). He has held visiting posts at the University of Toronto, Renmin University (Beijing), the University of New South Wales, and in 2014-15 was an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation visiting fellow at the Humboldt University of Berlin.  His book Judging Social Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2012) won the Society of Legal Scholars 2014 Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship, and in 2017 he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law.

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