Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This event was organised by the UCL Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism.
Speakers: Prof Se-shauna Wheatle (Durham University), Prof Roger Masterman (Durham University)
Respondents: Prof Tom Hickman (UCL Laws) and Dr Dora Devlin (UCL Laws)
Chair: Prof Jeff King (UCL Laws)
About the talk
Unwritten principles and conventions are central to the operation of the UK constitution. Constitutional principles – including parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law – are regarded as fundamental even in the absence of an authoritative source text. And the UK constitution’s reliance on conventions is often regarded as a defining feature. Yet, constitutional principles and conventions – though linked by their shared lack of an authoritative textual source – are often considered separately, with limited attention paid to their common characteristics. The result is that the current account of both sets of standards is incomplete and there is a need for further interrogation of the interactions between constitutional conventions and the unwritten constitutional principles. This paper seeks to fill some of that gap. Prof Se-Shauna Wheatle and Prof Roger Masterman argue that, while at first glance there may appear to be a clear demarcation between political and legal constitutional standards, many unwritten constitutional standards have both political and legal dimensions, with the corollary that there are multiple avenues for their normative development and enforcement. In this paper, Prof Se-Shauna Wheatle and Prof Roger Masterman outline the shared characteristics of unwritten principles and conventions and provide an account of the shared investment of constitutional actors in the process of articulating, and therefore, shaping understandings of, a range of unwritten constitutional standards. Finally, Prof Se-Shauna Wheatle and Prof Roger Masterman propose a taxonomy of conceptions that reflect the varying manifestations of the intersection and relationship between unwritten constitutional principles and conventions in the UK.
This seminar is part of the Public Law Seminar Series.
This event was organised by the UCL Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism.
Speakers: Prof Se-shauna Wheatle (Durham University), Prof Roger Masterman (Durham University)
Respondents: Prof Tom Hickman (UCL Laws) and Dr Dora Devlin (UCL Laws)
Chair: Prof Jeff King (UCL Laws)
About the talk
Unwritten principles and conventions are central to the operation of the UK constitution. Constitutional principles – including parliamentary sovereignty and the rule of law – are regarded as fundamental even in the absence of an authoritative source text. And the UK constitution’s reliance on conventions is often regarded as a defining feature. Yet, constitutional principles and conventions – though linked by their shared lack of an authoritative textual source – are often considered separately, with limited attention paid to their common characteristics. The result is that the current account of both sets of standards is incomplete and there is a need for further interrogation of the interactions between constitutional conventions and the unwritten constitutional principles. This paper seeks to fill some of that gap. Prof Se-Shauna Wheatle and Prof Roger Masterman argue that, while at first glance there may appear to be a clear demarcation between political and legal constitutional standards, many unwritten constitutional standards have both political and legal dimensions, with the corollary that there are multiple avenues for their normative development and enforcement. In this paper, Prof Se-Shauna Wheatle and Prof Roger Masterman outline the shared characteristics of unwritten principles and conventions and provide an account of the shared investment of constitutional actors in the process of articulating, and therefore, shaping understandings of, a range of unwritten constitutional standards. Finally, Prof Se-Shauna Wheatle and Prof Roger Masterman propose a taxonomy of conceptions that reflect the varying manifestations of the intersection and relationship between unwritten constitutional principles and conventions in the UK.
This seminar is part of the Public Law Seminar Series.
