Constitutions under pressure: Lessons for the UK

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 28 December 2022

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The UK Constitution is uncodified and a product of centuries of evolution, makes it hard to compare directly to the constitution of other countries. However, there are still important observations to be made from around the world. In this podcast we examine constitutional challenges and reflect on what lessons we can learn for the UK constitution. We speak to the Head of Research in the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights Professor Tarun Khaitan to discuss Narendra Modi’s approach to the Indian Constitution and his ‘chipping away’ at democratic institutions through amendments to the law and changes to constitutional practice We also speak to Dean of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Law School Isabel Aninat, academic at the university of Santiago, Chile and academic coordinator at the new constitution observatory Dr Pamela Figueroa, who discuss the 2019 protests that led to Chile writing a new constitution, and why the new draft was rejected. Finally senior editor at 444.hu Peter Erdelyi discusses the constitution in Hungary under Fidesz and Viktor Orbán. Presented by Maddy Thimont Jack with Dr Catherine Haddon and Jess Sargeant Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this IFG Live podcast, Constitutions Under Pressure.
0:15.0	My name is Maddie Timo Jack. Earlier this year, the Institute for Government, alongside the Bennett Institute for Public
0:21.5	Policy at Cambridge, launched a review of the UK Constitution to take a non-partisan approach to
0:26.4	analysing how the Constitution has worked after the political turmoil of the last six years.
0:32.0	While the nature of the UK Constitution as uncodified and a product of centuries of evolution
0:36.7	makes it hard to compare directly
0:38.6	to the constitution of other countries. We still believe there is value in looking at the
0:42.3	experience of other places. We should also not assume that because we have had more historic
0:46.7	constitutional stability, we cannot full prey to the issues we will go on to discuss. For this
0:52.3	podcast, we've interviewed experts from three different
0:54.6	countries, India, Hungary and Chile. Each of these countries have seen pressures on their
0:59.2	constitution from different sources. In India and Hungary, this has come from the governing party
1:03.9	and the executive, while in Chile the pressure has come from public unrest. We will talk to
1:09.6	these experts about what has been happening in each of
1:11.5	these countries before asking for reflections from IFG colleagues so joining me in the studio about
1:16.4	what we can learn for the UK. The last six years has been an extraordinary time for British
1:21.3	politics. We are now on to our fifth Prime Minister and first Brexit, then COVID and questions
1:27.1	around standards and ethics
1:28.3	have all placed strains on the UK constitution, not least as we saw politicians from all
1:33.2	traditions seeking to bend constitutional precedent to achieve their political aims.
1:37.5	Our first guest, Professor Taran Keiton, head of the Research Bonavaro Institute of Human Rights
1:42.3	at the University of Oxford, notes the tipping point for constitutional strain is difficult to identify.
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