Public Law is defined as,

According to the Black’s Law dictionary,

The laws that cover administration, constitution and criminal acts. It controls the actions
between the citizens of the state and the state itself. It deals with the governments operation and
structure.

Constitutional Fundamentals

The constitution of the United Kingdom can be looked at from two angles:

(i) Constitution as a rulebook

(ii) Constitution as a system

(i) Constitution as a rulebook

A constitution of a country is,

a set of the most important rules about the structure and powers of government and of
people’s most basic freedoms and rights.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is well known for not having one
legal document setting out the basic structures of government and people’s freedom and rights.

According to the Cabinet Manual, ( 1st edition, 2011)

The UK does not have a codified constitution. There is no single document that describes,
establishes or regulates the structures of the state and the way in which these relate to the
people. Instead, the constitutional order has evolved over time and continues to do so. It
consists of various institutions, statutes, judicial decisions, principles and practices that are
commonly understood as ‘constitutional’. The UK does not have a constitutional court to rule
on the implications of a codified constitution, and the sovereignty of Parliament is therefore
unrestrained by such a court…

The expression ‘unwritten constitution’ is often used but it is apt to be misleading. It is true to
say that the important constitutional rules of the United Kingdom are not written down in one
legal instrument but almost all rules are written down somewhere.

In the United Kingdom, with its dispersed constitutional rulebook, one should look for the set of
important rules that form the constitutional framework in,

(a) The Cabinet Manual

The Cabinet Manual is ‘A guide to laws, conventions and rules on the operation of government’,
written by the Cabinet Secretary in 2010-11. The Cabinet Secretary’s preface explains that,
It is primarily a guide for those working in government, recording the current position rather
than driving change. It is not intended to be legally binding or to set issues in stone. The
Cabinet Manual records rules and practices, but is not intended to be a source of any rule.