An uncodified or unwritten constitution is a constitution

Constitution

A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

 in which no single, formal document delineates the powers of a government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

, and the limits thereof. Instead, an unwritten constitution comprises the body of a country's laws, enacted over time, coupled with an emphasis on political precedent

Precedent

In common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a legal case that a court or other judicial body may apply when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts...

 and enshrined parliamentary procedure, to create a framework in which a limited government operates. Although these principles are not codified in a single law, they are still recognized by courts, legislators, and executives as binding upon government, limiting its powers. Thus, a court might cite "the constitution" in forbidding an exercise of power, even though no document actually exists.

Current examples

The following states can be considered to have an unwritten constitution:

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
  : no official constitution was ever written down, because the political system evolved over time, rather than being changed suddenly in an event such as a revolution. It is continuously being defined by acts of Parliament
  Parliament
  A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
  
   and decisions of the Law Courts. See Constitution of the United Kingdom
  Constitution of the United Kingdom
  The constitution of the United Kingdom is the set of laws and principles under which the United Kingdom is governed.Unlike many other nations, the UK has no single core constitutional document. In this sense, it is said not to have a written constitution but an uncodified one...
  
  .
• New Zealand
  New Zealand
  New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
  
  : see Constitution of New Zealand.
• Israel
  Israel
  The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
  
  : the declaration of independence promised a constitution by 2 October 1948, but due to irreconcilable differences in the Knesset, no complete constitution has been written yet. There are several Basic Laws
  Basic Laws of Israel
  The Basic Laws of Israel are a key component of Israel's constitutional law. These laws deal with the formation and role of the principal state's institutions, and the relations between the state's authorities. Some of them also protect civil rights...
  
  , however.
• San Marino
  San Marino
  San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino , is a state situated on the Italian Peninsula on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is an enclave surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over with an estimated population of over 30,000. Its capital is the City of San Marino...
  
  : see Constitution of San Marino
  Constitution of San Marino
  The Constitution of San Marino is distributed over a number of legislative instruments of which the most significant are the Statutes of 1600 and the Declaration of Citizen Rights of 1974 as amended in 2002. The constitutional system has influences from the Corpus Juris Civilis and Roman customary...
  
  .
• Ontario
  Ontario
  Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
  
   and other Canadian provinces, with the exception of British Columbia and the three Canadian territories

Former examples

• Constitution of the Roman Republic
  Constitution of the Roman Republic
  The Constitution of the Roman Republic was a set of guidelines and principles passed down mainly through precedent. The constitution was largely unwritten, uncodified, and constantly evolving...
  
   made up of the Twelve Tables
  Twelve Tables
  The Law of the Twelve Tables was the ancient legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Law of the Twelve Tables formed the centrepiece of the constitution of the Roman Republic and the core of the mos maiorum...
  
   and other statutes.
• Hungary
  Hungary
  Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
  
  , until 1949, had no codified constitution.

See also

• Constitution
• Constitutional monarchy
  Constitutional monarchy
  Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
  
  
• Constitutional economics
  Constitutional economics
  Constitutional economics is a research program in economics and constitutionalism that has been described as extending beyond the definition of 'the economic analysis of constitutional law' in explaining the choice "of alternative sets of legal-institutional-constitutional rules that constrain the...
  
  
• Political economy
  Political economy
  Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
  
  
• Rule according to higher law
  Rule according to higher law
  The rule according to a higher law means that no written law may be enforced by the government unless it conforms with certain unwritten, universal principles of fairness, morality, and justice...
  
  
• Statute law
• Common law
  Common law
  Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
  
  
• Conventions
  Convention (norm)
  A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....
  
  
• Treaties & EU law
• Works of authority