Tag: Parliamentary sovereignty
-
Michael Foran: Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Politics of Law-making
Parliamentary sovereignty has traditionally been understood to mean that Parliament is free to enact legislation on any area of law that it chooses, and that Acts of the U.K. Parliament take precedence over subordinate legislation, regulation, or common law rule. Understood this way, parliamentary sovereignty is a constitutional principle that is couched explicitly in legal…
-
Jacob Eisler: Voter ID and the Elections Bill 2021: Legislative Manipulation of Democratic Procedure and the Limits of Judicial Review
The Elections Bill 2021, as of the date of publication for the House of Commons Committee stage, advances a variety of changes to the regulation of elections and the practice of voting in the UK. Of the reforms, one controversially reshapes the practical experience of voting for most citizens. A new voter ID requirement will…
-
Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott: Rebalancing upstream and downstream scrutiny of government during national emergencies
Scrutiny comes in many forms, which can lead to many outcomes. Public scrutiny of Government is one such form, which is an element of democratic governance that aligns with the rule of law. Yet those experiencing and observing the ongoing administration of life in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic might be forgiven for arriving…
-
Paolo Sandro: Do You Really Mean It? Ouster Clauses, Judicial Review Reform, and the UK Constitutionalism Paradox
The Conservative government’s response to the IRAL report has raised plenty of alarm bells from UK constitutional scholars. The widespread observation that the government’s judicial review reform plans appear to go well beyond what the Independent Panel recommended points to a more fundamental problem: that the government seems to proceed from a very partial understanding…
-
Thomas L Muinzer: Russell’s Paradox and the Principle of Parliamentary Sovereignty
The Brexit process has served to draw significant attention to a rich variety of questions engaging the character and scope of the doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty. This includes on this blog, where various significant issues have been ably examined by, amongst others: Professor Mike Gordon, with reference to the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill and…
-
Rivka Weill: We the British People Rule: From 1832 to the Present
To anyone who accepts Britain’s parliamentary sovereignty, Brexit should not make sense. How could a nation committed to parliamentary rule find itself bound by a consultative referendum’s result? And after the majority of Parliament had repeatedly opposed Brexit! In “From Earl Grey to Boris Johnson: Brexit and the Anglo-American Constitutional Model,” I reveal that…
-
Carwyn Jones: Is Dicey dicey?
For nearly a hundred and fifty years, parliamentary sovereignty or supremacy (the terms are used interchangeably) has been taken as immutable and unchanging by the UK Parliament and the courts. As devolution has developed, the concept deserves greater examination to see whether the concept is as sound as it has been supposed. There is nothing…
-
Lee Marsons, Maurice Sunkin and Theodore Konstadinides: The UK Administrative Justice Institute’s submission to the Independent Review of Administrative Law
On 20 October, the UK Administrative Justice Institute (UKAJI) made available on its website its submission to the Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL), drafted by Lee Marsons, Maurice Sunkin, and Theodore Konstadinides of the University of Essex. This blog provides an overview of that submission and follows our original UKCLA post setting out our…
-
Nicholas Reed Langen: Is the Supreme Court more interventionist?
The global outpouring of grief upon the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September showed how complete her transfer from justice of the Supreme Court to international icon was. Notorious enough to just be known by her initials, RBG was a judge celebrated in popular culture like no other. Hollywood A-lister Felicity Jones portrayed…
-
Pavlos Eleftheriadis: The Constitutional Status of ‘Separation Law’
The European Communities Act 1972 caused an important and beneficial transformation to the British constitutional settlement. It made clear that some acts of Parliament have higher legal significance than others. This was recognised by the British courts in the case of Factortame. Many scholars believe that this was a legal ‘revolution’. I disagree. A better…