The new British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is planned some fairly dramatic overhauling of the constitution. Two of the rumored items stand out the most: the change in the Prime Minister’s power to declare war and the creation of a British Bill of Rights. The article makes no mention of what the process would be for declaring war. It would certainly be interesting if this power was given back to the sovereign, but most likely it would end up requiring a full Parliamentary vote.

Gordon Brown will this week propose surrendering historic powers delegated to previous prime ministers by the monarch as part of a wide-ranging programme of constitutional reform.

The reforms are expected to involve Mr Brown giving up royal prerogatives traditionally exercised by the prime minister, such as the power to declare war without parliamentary approval or to appoint bishops to the Church of England.

If that is the case, it becomes something of a distinction without much of a difference, because presumably the Prime Minister has the confidence of the majority in the House of Commons, and if s/he proposed a declaration of war, it is likely that a majority would de-facto agree. Of course this became a bit more complication with the Iraq war when growing number of Labour MPs disagreed with Prime Minister Blair’s decision to go to war and to continue the war. It seems like Brown’s move would be more designed to signal his own MPs that he learned a lesson from Blair’s Iraq experience.

The article also suggests that Brown is considering a Bill of Rights:

The House of Commons will be given new powers, including the right for MPs to recall Parliament during a recess if there is a national emergency, to hold American-style confirmation hearings for appointees to key public posts and to ratify international treaties.

In the longer term, Mr Brown is considering a British Bill of Rights, enshrining the civil liberties of citizens currently set out in the Human Rights Act and European Convention on Human Rights, to give a greater sense of what it means to be a British citizen.

Without yet knowing the details of the proposal it is difficult to think about what consequences this might have for Britain. But, it would certainly be historic, considering how Britain has never had an official, inviolable Bill of Rights before. It will be interesting to see how such a document is crafted and what procedures are implemented for amending it (a Parliamentary super-majority? nationwide referendum? etc.)

Although the article frames it as an issue of British citizenship and defining the legal meaning of British-ness, there is also the suggestion of the link with the European human rights conventions. With this Bill of Rights, Brown might be trying to pre-empt some of the remaining differences between British laws and EU ones by crafting a document that nullifies a bunch of other laws that might contradict EU regulations.

A lot of speculation on my part, but it seems that there is more than just legal reforms going on here. It will be interesting to see what proposals Brown eventually puts forward as well as how they are received in Britain.

The complete article from The Daily Telegraph: “Brown gives up the power to declare war”