A conservative disposition and constitutional change

Abstract

What is a conservative disposition? And can it supply any insights into the UK’s changing constitution? We offer answers to these questions by identifying core elements of a conservative disposition and exploring how it offers contingent guidance to public lawyers striving to make sense of a changing constitution. Our goal is to show why a conservative disposition remains relevant to public lawyers, in large measure because, rather than despite, the constitution is changing. We examine the disposition’s relationship with change and review how a conservative disposition offers open-ended guidance on when to pursue change, how to pursue it, how much of it to pursue at any point in time and what reasons should motivate it. After evaluating arguments against the relevance of a conservative disposition to constitutional thought, we relate conservative arguments to two important proposals for constitutional reform: the withdrawal of the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights and a written constitution.