Whether the UK needs a written constitution is a staple of British constitutional debates. Over the years, the fault lines have shifted from whether to incorporate a Bill of Rights to much deeper disagreement with respect to the people and the central power of the state. In this article I neither endorse the conservative case against a written constitution nor argue for the existing constitution to be codified. Instead, I first assess the content of various proposals for a written constitution. I then problematise the process of constitution making by asking not whether the UK constitution should be codified, but by relating the constitution to the people as the authors and to the state as its object.

中文翻译：

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成文宪法：未立案

英国是否需要一部成文宪法是英国宪法辩论的主要内容。多年来，分歧已经从是否纳入权利法案转变为关于人民和国家中央权力的更深层次的分歧。在本文中，我既不支持反对成文宪法的保守主义案例，也不主张将现有宪法编纂成法。相反，我首先评估各种成文宪法提案的内容。然后，我不问是否应该编纂英国宪法，而是将宪法与作为作者的人民和作为其对象的国家联系起来，从而使宪法制定过程成为问题。