Tag: constitutional conventions
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Robert Craig: Uncomfortable, But Not Unconstitutional – The Transition to a New Prime Minister
Despite Keir Starmer’s landslide majority just two years ago, the former Prime Minister announced his resignation from the premiership on 20 July. The departure of yet another prime minister, in short order, follows a series of political misjudgements that saw his support in both parliament and country drain away. The only candidate to replace Mr…
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Conor Casey: The Attorney’s Bridle: The Constitutional Convention Disciplining the Attorney General’s Discretionary Powers
The Attorney General is one of the most powerful and influential officers in the British Constitution. They are the chief adviser of the Crown on points of law and the chief counsel for the government in legal proceedings. They also have an important role in the machinery of criminal law enforcement in England & Wales and a wide…
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Francesca Jackson: King Charles, the Speech from the Throne and the Constitutional Shift from the ‘Dignified’ to the ‘Efficient’: A Challenge to the Doctrine of Political Neutrality?
Bagehot famously made a distinction between the ‘dignified’ and ‘efficient’ parts of the Constitution (Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution (London: Henry S. King and Company 1867)). The former were those which ‘excite and preserve the reverence of the population’, and were epitomised by the grandeur and splendour of the monarchy. The latter were those by…
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Dane Luo: There is ‘Advice’ and then there is ‘advice’: The Constitutional Conventions on the Appointment of the Prime Minister
On 23 May 2025, the Court of Appeal held that the Conservative Party was not exercising a ‘public function’ for the purposes of s 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 when it elected Liz Truss as party leader, who would go on to be appointed as the Prime Minister: R (Tortoise Media Ltd) v…
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Stefan Theil: Medical Incapacity and the UK Constitution
In the United Kingdom, the mental health of politicians has traditionally commanded relatively little attention, perhaps due to popular cynicism and distrust towards elected officials. Still, those involved in UK political life have characterised it as a ‘rough old game’, with MPs referencing broken marriages, overwork, loss of friendships and poor sleep. Over time, MPs…
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Leah Trueblood: Judicial Review of Prorogation in Canada: The Applicability of Miller/Cherry v Prime Minister to MacKinnon v Canada
In the opening lines of Miller/Cherry, Lady Hale and Lord Reed, giving the unanimous judgment of the court, say that the case ‘arises in circumstances which have never arisen before and are unlikely to ever arise again.’ The case, they said, is a ‘one off.’ [1] One of the arguments raised by the Applicants in…
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Francesca Jackson: The New ‘Social Leadership Monarchy’ Is Thriving – But Is It Compatible With the Constitution?
Back in November, I wrote a blog post on the progression of the Public Service Monarchy (‘PSM’). It is a topic I wish to return to. I now believe that what we are seeing is not a progression of the PSM, but a new, identifiable form of monarchy – the Social Leadership Monarchy (‘SLM’), which…
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Francesca Jackson: What Does the Debate Over Slavery Reparations Tell Us About the Cardinal Convention, Soft Power and the Public Service Monarchy?
There is a good reason why the constitutional convention requiring the monarch to exercise his prerogative powers on the advice of his government is known as the ‘Cardinal Convention’: it is ‘the most fundamental’ constitutional convention relating to the monarchy – something King Charles is finding out when it comes to slavery reparations. At a…
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Stephen Tierney: The Lord Advocate’s Reference: Referendums and Constitutional Convention
On 11-12 October the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a reference brought by the Lord Advocate under the Scotland Act 1998, Schedule 6, para.34 (‘the Reference’). The Lord Advocate seeks determination of the following questions: Does the provision of the proposed Scottish Independence Referendum Bill that provides that the question to be asked in…
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Mike Gordon: A Statutory Basis for the Ministerial Code – the Challenges
With the UK in the midst of its latest political corruption crisis, the question of the (in)adequacy of the current infrastructure concerning standards in public life is once more in the spotlight. Immediately prior to the parliamentary farce over the Owen Paterson lobbying affair, the Committee on Standards in Public Life published a significant report,…