The English Constitution and the future

Abstract

THE present age is one of transition, of great, often violent, upheaval in practically every sphere of human activity; and the legal-political sphere is no exception. Therefore it would not be amiss to pause for a moment and try to see how this remarkable, this eminently human, phenomenon, the English Constitution, is faring in the midst of these changes. The success of this brilliant work of improvisation (for such it is), modified and extended through the centuries as occasion demanded, has been a mystery to foreigners, who have tried to imitate it but have discovered that it is a plant that grows only on English soil. There are, I think, two important reasons why the English Constitution has been on the whole a successful experiment in government. The first is that it is mainly "the product of lawyers, of persons, therefore, with a practical working knowledge of the law. The corresponding institutions of other nations, perhaps more intellectual than the English, have often been the creation not so much of lawyers, as of abstract philosophers and politically ambitious generals, and have wholly or partially broken down in consequence. The other reason is, of course, England's unique geographical position which has enabled her to put her system into practice without outside interference. Had it been otherwise, the lawyer would have been helpless, as international lawyers have reluctantly realised when confronted with superior force.