Tag: Ministerial Code
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James Hand: Ministerial Maternity Leave
The Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill is designed, in the words of the Prime Minister’s Written Statement, to remedy the wrong of having to choose between “taking leave to recover from childbirth and care for a new-born child or resigning from office” which is clearly “not acceptable in modern times”. The Paymaster-General, introducing the…
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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…
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Ewan Smith: “British Laws for British Ministers !”
Introduction We now have a government under law, except in a limited, specific way. The Advocate General, Lord Keen, and the Head of the Government Legal Department, Jonathan Jones, have resigned in protest. Their reasons were revealed in an illuminating article about the dispute between the Attorney General, Solicitor General and Advocate General published in…
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Dapo Akande and Eirik Bjorge: The United Kingdom Ministerial Code and International Law: A Response to Richard Ekins and Guglielmo Verdirame
Much has been written about the recent changes to the United Kingdom’s Ministerial Code. Until October of this year, the code referred to the “overarching duty on Ministers to comply with the law including international law and treaty obligations”. In October, however, the code was changed to refer more simply to “the overarching duty on…
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George Letsas: The Rule of All Law: A Reply to Finnis, Ekins and Verdirame
The Prime Minister’s recent change to the ministerial code has divided opinion amongst lawyers and academic experts. Prior to the change, the code made reference to “the overarching duties on ministers to comply with the law including international law and treaty obligations and to uphold the administration of justice”. Now, it simply refers to the…
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Conor McCormick: Debating Constitutional Dualism
A recent amendment to the Ministerial Code has prompted some interesting constitutional commentary which focuses mainly on the perceived rationale behind the change and the critical response of some to its legal validity. The revised document does not make specific reference to international law and treaty obligations in its exposition of an overarching duty on…
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Richard Ekins and Guglielmo Verdirame: The Ministerial Code and the Rule of Law
Editors’ note: This is an updated and slightly expanded version of an earlier post published on the Judicial Power Project website. It is cross-posted here with permission. The debate about the recent changes to the Ministerial Code rages on. Melanie Phillips joined the critics with an article in the Times. John Finnis defended the change,…
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Mike Gordon: Ministerial Responsibility After Huhne
Does the Chris Huhne affair have constitutional implications? In one sense, the answer to this question might be a rather obvious one. From a constitutional perspective – although certainly not from a political perspective – the case seems relatively uncontroversial. Huhne resigned from his post as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on…
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Jacob Rowbottom: Ministers, media and the decision to investigate
Last week, an editorial in the Guardian called for the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Interests to be scrapped. The paper argued that, as the Adviser is called into action so infrequently, his £20,000 salary is not a good use of resources. Since that article was published, Baroness Warsi has been referred to the Independent Adviser,…