The latest legal and political developments within the United Kingdom suggest that the country is about to embark upon a programme of significant constitutional reform. During General Election campaigning in 2019 much was reported on Conservative party pledges to ‘deliver Brexit.’ However, the other seismic constitutional changes proposed within the party’s manifesto gained less media exposure. Such included: reforming electoral law; strengthening the UK Union; redrafting human rights legislation; reformulating administrative justice and judicial review, and reviewing the constitutional role of judges; as well as changing the composition and function of both Houses of Parliament. The proposed changes have the potential to systematically redefine the relationships between Government, Parliament and the judiciary; as well as that between Westminster and the UK Nations’ devolved administrations. This heralding of a new dawn for constitutional reform is purported as needed owing to a “destabilising and potentially extremely damaging rift between politicians and the people” under the previous Parliament.
Central to these proposals for change is contested constitutional value of ‘legitimacy.’ Such has been utilised by politicians and lawyers alike to sustain arguments and justify proposals for change. For constitutional legitimacy to exist, popular participation must be axiomatic, evident in any proposals for change or constitutional amendment; and follow closely on from the concept that citizens hold the ‘constituent power’ within a constitutional order.
Up until 2020, the meaning of ‘legitimacy’ had taken a Westminster-centric guise, particularly in failing to address the issue of divergence in different devolved Nations. Nonetheless, since the outbreak of COVID-19, the concept has evolved and diverged in response to the pandemic, with different Government’s serving their own citizens’ interests differently by promoting a devolved, national brand of the value.
This paper maps the multifaceted theoretical and practical development of the contested constitutional principle of ‘legitimacy,’ and how such is now being utilised as a central constitutional principle, and political tool, to reformulate a ‘new’ British Constitution.