Tag: constitutional conventions
-
Mike Gordon: Priti Patel, the Independent Adviser, and Ministerial Irresponsibility
We might wonder whether it is worth writing about the rules of ministerial responsibility under the current government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This is especially the case after the Prime Minister’s remarkable, but hardly surprising, decision last week to give his full support to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to remain in his Cabinet…
-
Adam Perry: Enforcing Principles, Enforcing Conventions
Did the UK Supreme Court enforce a constitutional convention in Miller (No 2)? Most writers say no. I say yes. Miller (No 2) I won’t go through the case in detail. For my purposes three points matter. First, the UKSC says that there is a constitutional ‘principle of Parliamentary accountability’. It gives three examples of…
-
Tanzil Chowdhury: Miller (No 2), the Principle-isation of Ministerial Accountability and Military Deployments
Has the court in Miller (No 2) done the very thing it said it wouldn’t do in Miller (No 1)? Has it given legal enforceability to the constitutional convention of ministerial accountability? Several authors appear to suggest that is has (here, here and here). Indeed, conventions were given rather peculiar judicial treatment in Miller (No…
-
Jeff King: The Prime Minister’s Constitutional Options after the Benn Act: Part II
This is the second of a two-part discussion of this theme. The first part addressed the obligations under the Benn Act and the legal response to attempts to frustrate it; this second part addresses non-confidence motions, resignation and change of Government. Heading numbering is continued from Part 1. 5. Non-confidence procedure under the FTPA –…
-
Derek O’Brien: Prorogation: A Postcolonial Perspective
Whether or not it is ultimately found to be unlawful, the Prime Minister’s decision to advise the Queen to prorogue Parliament has shed a spotlight on what Robert Blackburn has described in his illuminating article on the monarch’s personal prerogatives as: “a little corner of the constitution that is little understood and is routinely misunderstood”,…
-
Stefan Theil: Unconstitutional Prorogation
Parliament voted on the evening of 1 April in a series of indicative votes to determine what, if any, alternative plan for withdrawal from the European Union could command the support of the House of Commons: all plans put forward again failed to command a majority. In a recent intervention, John Finnis has suggested that…
-
Tanzil Chowdhury: Statutorising UK Military Deployments and Assessing Anxieties of Their Justiciability
The paramount anxieties that emerge from attempts to statutorising Parliament’s role in making decisions on whether to commit military action abroad has not just been to do with deferring power from the executive to the Commons, but also with the potential justiciability of such decisions. While frequent attempts to table such bills are often accompanied…
-
Panagiotis Doudonis: Constitutional Conventions and the Italian President
The great political and constitutional turmoil caused by the President of the Italian Republic’s choice to veto the appointment of a Eurosceptic finance minister, and subsequently to appoint Carlo Cottarelli as designated Prime Minister to lead a technocrat caretaker government, brings out the importance of conventional regulation for continental European countries. The Head of State…
-
Mark Bennett: The Ever-Expanding ‘Emergency’ Exception: Syria, the War Powers Convention, and the Bypassing of Prior Parliamentary Debate
Introduction In a recent post on this blog, Veronika Fikfak and Hayley Hooper outlined the implications of the UK’s military intervention in Syria, on 13 April 2018, vis-à-vis the so-called War Powers Convention. For present purposes, it suffices to briefly remind readers that the broad acceptance of this nascent constitutional development was underscored by its…
-
Veronika Fikfak and Hayley J. Hooper: Whither the War Powers Convention? What Next for Parliamentary Control of Armed Conflict after Syria?
A. Introduction and Background On Friday 13 April 2018 the Royal Air Force participated in air strikes (together with the United States and France) to degrade the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability and to deter further chemical attacks. This intervention in Syria was not authorised by the UN Security Council, nor was the involvement of…