Brexit and the future of the UK constitution
| Date | 01 June 2022 |
| Published date | 01 June 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512121995133 |
| Author | Stuart White |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512121995133
International Political Science Review
2022, Vol. 43(3) 359 –373
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512121995133
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Brexit and the future of the
UK constitution
Stuart White
Jesus College, University of Oxford, UK
Abstract
This article discusses the potential for constitutional impact of Brexit on the United Kingdom’s constitution.
Some argue that Brexit entails the restoration of effective parliamentary sovereignty and, thereby, a
reaffirmation of the UK’s traditional constitution. However, Brexit increases pressure on unstable points
in the traditional constitution, making other outcomes possible. One possibility is the emergence of a
‘populist’ democracy which, while retaining the legal framework of the traditional constitution, gives the
UK executive greater power relative to the UK parliament, judiciary and devolved governments. The
institution of referendum might also have a distinctive place within this new populist democracy, though
the constitutional status of the referendum remains very unclear. In this scenario, UK developments have
something in common with shifts towards ‘post-liberal’ and ‘populist’ polities in other nations. Alternatively,
the pressures increased by Brexit might yet push the UK – or post-UK – further in the direction of
democratic constitutionalism, ultimately making it a more ‘normal’ – ironically, perhaps a more ‘European’
– democratic state.
Keywords
Brexit, parliamentary sovereignty, popular sovereignty, populism, democratic constitutionalism
Introduction
In the United Kingdom (UK) constitution the UK parliament is not subject to a codified constitu-
tion that is an entrenched, higher law. The parliament is sovereign. Moreover, it is, in legal terms,
the parliament that is sovereign, not ‘we the people’. In these respects, while the UK is a demo-
cratic polity, it is not an example of the democratic constitutionalism we see in many other demo-
cratic states, states in which the elected legislature is subject to an entrenched higher law, and
where this law itself has democratic legitimacy because it is properly the creation of ‘the people’.
For many supporters of ‘Brexit’, membership of the European Union (EU) undermined the UK’s
traditional (unwritten) constitution because, as they see it, the UK parliament became effectively
subordinated to EU law. This is a theme of the UK government’s 2017 White Paper on Brexit, The
United Kingdom’s Exit from and New Partnership with the European Union (Blick, 2019:
Corresponding author:
Stuart White, Jesus College, University of Oxford, Turl Street, Oxford OX1 3DW, UK.
Email: stuart.white@jesus.ox.ac.uk
995133IPS0010.1177/0192512121995133International Political Science ReviewWhite
research-article2021
Special Issue: The Brexit Effect
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