Category: Constitutional change
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![Alison Young: R (Miller) v The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin): Constitutional Adjudication – Reality over Legality?](https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/alison-young-e1631090725385.jpg)
Alison Young: R (Miller) v The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin): Constitutional Adjudication – Reality over Legality?
In a ground-breaking decision, the High Court in Miller issued a declaratory order that ‘the Secretary of State does not have power under the Crown’s prerogative to give notice pursuant to Article 50 of the TEU for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union.’ [paragraph 111]. In earlier posts, I explained how the…
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Mark Elliott and Stephen Tierney: House of Lords Constitution Committee Reports on Wales Bill
The House of Lords Constitution Committee today publishes its report on the Wales Bill. The history of the Bill is a somewhat chequered one, a Draft Bill published in October 2015 having been subjected to excoriating criticism by (among others) the Assembly’s Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee. The centrepiece of the Bill is intended to…
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Marco Goldoni: Constitutional Referendums as Vectors of Regime-building: Observations from the Italian Case
It is referendums’ season. After Brexit and the Hungarian referendum on the European migrants’ resettlement plans (the so called ‘quota referendum’), an important constitutional plebiscite will take place in Italy on the 4th of December. The subject matter of the referendum is vast and, formally, affects more than 40 articles of the constitution out of…
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Leah Trueblood: Referendums, Compromise, and Ratification
Resolving any political question requires compromise. This is as true for constitutional questions as it is for questions of policy. This can be seen now in the European Union’s reminders to the United Kingdom that access to the single market is not ‘à la carte.’ While some have argued that the latest referendum outcome is illegitimate, and…
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Mark Elliott and Stephen Tierney: The House of Lords Constitution Committee Report on ‘The Union and Devolution’
The House of Lords Constitution Committee today publishes its report on ‘The Union and devolution’. This post draws attention to some of its main findings. The Constitution Committee’s report on ‘The Union and devolution’, published today, declares the Union to be “under threat”, and recommends that the United Kingdom Government “needs fundamentally to reassess how…
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Barbara Guastaferro: Disowning Edmund Burke? The Constitutional Implications of EVEL on Political Representation
“Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates” but rather “a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole” (E. Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol, 3 November 1774). With these…
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Robert Thomas: Local Government Devolution in England
Cross-posted from the Centre on Constitutional Change. At last, devolution is happening in England, but there are some areas of concern especially as regards the lack of public engagement and the legal framework. So far, devolution has concerned 15 per cent of the UK’s population leaving the remaining 85 per cent more or less as…
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Thomas Fairclough: Constitutional Change, Standing Orders, and EVEL: A Step in the Wrong Direction?
In their 2015 General Election manifesto the Conservative Party promised to end the “manifest unfairness” whereby Scotland could decide its own laws within areas of devolved competence only to have Scottish MPs able to have a say on similar matters that affect only England (or England and Wales). Whilst this is a problem in relation…
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Pavlos Eleftheriadis: The EU Protects Liberty, but a British Bill of Rights Would Endanger It
Cross-posted from The Conversation. As David Cameron tiptoes towards a referendum which will decide the UK’s future role in Europe, any innovation that could placate eurosceptic sections of the electorate might prove useful. That is maybe why an article by a fellow academic has gained political currency by pushing forward again the argument that Britain…
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Eoin Carolan: Some Lessons from Ireland’s Marriage Referendum?
Almost six months after being popularly endorsed in a widely publicised referendum, Ireland’s first same-sex marriages took place on November 17th last. While the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015 was amongst the more high-profile attempts at constitutional change in recent years, the vote was actually one of eight referenda on constitutional…