Avantages et inconvénients d'une constitution écrite: l'exemple de la Grande-Bretagne

A constitution is a legal document that sets out the relationships between the three main institutions of the state, that is to say the executive, the legislative and the judicial power and that also guarantee a certain amount of rights for the citizens. In a wider sense, and quoting Bolingbroke, a constitution means an assemblage of laws, institutions and customs, derived from certain fixed principles of reason...that compose the general system, according to which the community has agreed to be governed. Nowadays almost every country in the world has a constitution, that is to say a written document that defines the rules of the political system, but not the United Kingdom. Indeed the United Kingdom has what is called an unwritten constitution, that is to say that the English constitution is not contained in one official and legal document called a constitution as in all the other countries but that the English constitution is in fact contained within a whole set of documents, court judgements, customs, conventions etc. This unorthodox system had been working for now three centuries without any real and serious crisis, but one can wonder how a political system can work without a written document that defines all the rules to govern and what make such a system work. It will be seen first what are the advantages of such a system and then in a second part it will be explained what disadvantages and problems can an unwritten constitution cause.