Abstract
After the French Revolution and the Independence of the United States of America, written constitutions became more numerous. In 1820, forty-eight constitutions had already been drafted. Thirty years later, eighty more written constitutions was counted in the world. At the end of the twentieth century, written constitutions were almost universal, as a symbol of evolution of a more organized world. They proclaimed general ideals, being a mark of identity, a sort of emblem or anthem. In these constitutions, a persistent tension could be observed, due to their transnational character, which transcended oceanic boundaries. They represented the self-image of a particular nation. Linda Colley argued that it is "less something we have than something we are". They are deployed as stories about the nations.
The fact is that there is no written constitution in Britain, which is resisting to this trend and can even be qualified as being "hostile" to it, remaining aloof from this new constitutional tendency. To show their disdain, they qualified them of "Paper Constitutions", humiliating the countries who have drafted them. This term was used in the 1970's. Linda Colley made a parallel with bills, which were only substitutes for real gold, as well as with corsets, which deformed the woman body as constitutions do with the political body.
Payne, a conservative leader in 1973, has been hugely criticized for having wanted a constitution he could have held in his pocket. According to Linda Colley, a constitution does not stand in the pocket, but in the heart. When referring to written constitutions, she uses a rhetoric field of horror, comparing it to "monsters" or "savage and deformed creatures". She even makes a parallel with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, arguing that it was a British conservatives' critic of written constitutions.
