A BRITISH REPUBLIC

Abstract

Arguments are generated in an ad hoc way about the continuation of the monarchy. Such media-led arguments are no substitute for a rational analysis of constitutional issues, although of course public opinion has an important part to play in the future of any constitutional institution. At present there is not even a basic framework against which any such reasoned analysis could begin. While a case against the British monarchy has been constructed by several people, the silence of constitutional lawyers on the central issue of monarchy or republic is surprising, for what is that issue if not one concerning a central part of the constitution, and, indeed, a very pervasive one? The author,a constitutional lawyer, examines the constitutional arguments and implications about the alternatives of monarchy or republic in the United Kingdom and attempts to make clear which matters would require decision if the United Kingdom were to opt for republicanism. He demonstrates that a change to a British republic would require the resolution of many interrelated issues. Even the answer to the apparently simple question of principle of whether a monarchy or a republic is preferred may turn on the type of republic which was on offer. Conversion to a republic would involve wide and deep changes to much of the constitution because of the legal peculiarities of the ancient British monarchy. These are not insoluble difficulties, but they do mean that the abolition of the monarchy would be an intellectually challenging exercise.