Ms Mary O'Toole:

There is no written constitution in the UK. The nearest thing it has to one is the European Convention on Human Rights which was enacted in law in 1998. That gave it a charter against which to measure rights. Until then legislation could not be challenged in the way that we are used to doing. The courts in England could not say that legislation was unconstitutional. They have unwritten constitutional principles, which is somewhat different. Invalidating legislation is a different day's work. We recently saw the challenge to the constitutionality of the manner in which the Brexit legislation was brought before the British Parliament because it has unwritten parliamentary rules allowing it to ask whether there is the power to do this, that and the other but invalidating legislation is not one of those things.

In the Bourne case in England in, I think, 1937, a doctor was prosecuted under the Offences against the Person legislation that the Deputy speaks of for having performed an abortion on a 14 year old. He said he was performing it to preserve the life of the mother. The jury was directed to acquit him of the offence of abortion on the basis that if the mother's pregnancy had proceeded she would have been a mental and physical wreck. That test imports health, as opposed to life, qualifications. Following that case legislation regulating the abortion regime was introduced in England. It is purely legislative and is amended by Parliament from time to time as required. It is not subject to a constitutional analysis in that way. It might be subject to some kind of challenge under the European Convention on Human Rights but it has not, in so far as I am aware, been so challenged to date because I do not think there is any provision of the convention that would obviously be breached by anything in the English legislation.