Lawful Authority is Permanent and Perpetual

The British Constitution is where the Rule of Law is enshrined and of course law is not a matter of opinion but a matter of certainty. The matter of the Royal Prerogative, parliamentary prerogative and arbitrary power has been exercised and challenged over many centuries. As Churchill has pointed out no challenge to the authority of the British Constitution has ever been successful. It is the British Constitution that protects the rights, freedoms and liberties of the British citizen and the history books contain a litany of examples when despotic sovereigns and tyrants have dreamt of unlimited power and glory only to be awoken by the hoarse voice of popular tumult, the might of arms and the awful sight of humans haemorrhaging to death!

But of course in the worst examples of tyranny and despotism the law becomes uncertain and under the whim of the judiciary and the executive. We can refer to the abuses and rapacity of the ignoble Judge Jeffries during the reign of James II when law as we imagine it took on a different meaning and sentence was often decided in advance of the trial.

We have the recent example of the Attorney General exercising the law in a very uncertain and doubtful manner in support of the war in Iraq. Much legislation today that becomes “law” emanates from arbitrary government and is therefore unconstitutional.