Time to shelve Britain’s “unwritten” Constitution?

Speaking at the Festival of Ideas on Thursday (21 October), Professor Colley will explore the contradictory position of constitutionalism in British history and ask how something so individual and idiosyncratic has at the same time shaped the constitutions of countries all over the world?

Britain, it is often claimed, is the world’s only democracy without a written constitution. While parts are in fact written down, the UK lacks a core constitutional document and relies on various unwritten aspects, such as parliamentary constitutional conventions and royal prerogatives, as well.

Yet despite its “unwritten” status, it has at the same time influenced the writing of constitutions in other countries more than anywhere else on earth. The lecture will attempt to show how the form evolved and ask whether it is time it was now shelved.

The talk is the second in the series of Mark Pigott Lectures, which mark the support given by Mark Pigott, chairman and chief executive officer of the US firm PACCAR, for arts and humanities scholarship at Cambridge. The first lecture was given by Dr. David Starkey at the Festival of Ideas in 2009.

Currently Professor of History at Princeton University, Professor Linda Colley was also the first woman Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge and also held fellowships at Girton and Newnham Colleges.

She is a leading authority on ideas of Britishness and British history. Her third book, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707 – 1837 won the Wolfson Prize and has attracted great attention both as a study of the evolution and the complexities of British national identities, and as a contribution to understanding nationalism more broadly.

In 1999, while a Professor at the London School of Economics, Professor Colley was one of several speakers invited to deliver a Millennium Lecture at 10 Downing Street. The talk, “Britishness in the 21st Century”, was subsequently widely referenced by the British Council and other national bodies.

From 1999 to 2003, Professor Colley served on the board of the British Library and on the Council of the Tate Gallery of British Art. Her 2007 book, The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A woman in world history, was listed by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of that year.

Professor Colley’s talk, entitled “When did the British Constitution become unwritten?” is open to all and will take place from 5.30pm to 6.30pm on Thursday, 21 October, in Mill Lane Lecture Room 3.