Earlier this month, Britain’s Conservative Party effectively toppled its own prime minister after he’d had three eventful years in power. Boris Johnson’s downfall can be attributed to more scandals, controversies, and allegations of misconduct in that time than can be easily summarized here. Ministers resigned in protest. Party elders urged him to “consider his position,” which is Westminster slang for “quit or be fired.” Polling numbers plummeted. Johnson, for his part, refused to budge until he did.
All of this took place in the context of Britain’s “unwritten constitution,” which is the term used by that country’s legal scholars to refer to the countless precedents, patterns, and parliamentary acts that stitch together the modern British state. The unwritten constitution relies on a number of legal fictions, namely that Queen Elizabeth II is the country’s ruler and not Parliament and that prime ministers are simply giving her “advice,” when they’re actually running the show.
