unwritten constitution

noun

a constitution, as in Great Britain, not codified as a document but defined by custom and precedent as embodied in statutes and judicial decisions.

First recorded in 1885–90

That is the biggest revolution in this unwritten Constitution of ours that I can suggest.

There is an unwritten constitution, a spirit that governs, like Maeterlinck's "spirit of the hive."

And conduct sinning against the broad lines of the unwritten Constitution is looked on as hardly less unlikely.

The written Law and the unwritten Constitution alike exempt the Sovereign from all ordinary personal responsibility.

The unwritten Constitution lays the agents and advisers of the Crown under a responsibility of quite another kind.

April 18, 2024petrichor

[pet-ri-kawr]

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