... parliamentary sovereignty means that Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK. This contrasts to many European and Commonwealth countries, which have a clearly defined constitutional settlement. The closest thing the UK has to a bill of rights today is the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates the European Convention of Human Rights 1950 (ECHR) into domestic law. The key features within the unwritten constitution would be described as being uncodified, not ingrained therefore flexible and unitary (excluding recent devolution) With that said, the UK, despite not possessing a formal written constitution, has a series of notable constitutional documents. The entry of the UK into the European Union in 1973 caused a major constitutional development, bringing Britain under the supra-national jurisdiction of the EU. Thus parliament may have in practice limited its own sovereignty, the Factortame case of 1990 illustrates this. The case involving the denial of UK fishing rights claims ...

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