Tag: secondary legislation
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Paul Craig: European Union (Withdrawal) Bill: Legal Status and Effect of Retained Law
In an earlier posting I intimated that the initial divide between EU measures that should be regarded as primary legislation post-Brexit and those that should be regarded as secondary measures would not be too difficult to draw. When the initial divide had been made it could then be decided whether the status of any such…
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Sionaidh Douglas-Scott: The ‘Great Repeal Bill’: Constitutional Chaos and Constitutional Crisis?
On October 2, Theresa May set out plans for a ‘Great Repeal Bill’ to be included in the next Queen’s Speech. There is very little detail currently available, but it appears this Bill is intended to remove the European Communities Act (ECA) 1972 from the statute book following completion of the Brexit negotiations. It would…
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Graham John Wheeler: When Should the Lords Reject Secondary Legislation?
On 26 October 2015, the House of Lords debated the Tax Credits (Income Thresholds and Determination of Rates) (Amendment) Regulations 2015. The Regulations were approved, but subject to two riders. Critics claimed that these riders constituted “fatal” amendments, and that they were therefore tantamount to a rejection of the legislation. It was argued that it…
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Adam Tucker: Tax Credits, Delegated Legislation, and Executive Power
Following the (provisional) defeat of the Tax Credits (Income Thresholds and Determination of Rates) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 in the House of Lords last week, a narrative has very quickly been established that this is an incident revolving around the powers of the House of Lords. Amidst suggestions that we are in “constitutional crisis”, the government…
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Carol Harlow: How not to do things with rules
For many years now, administrative lawyers have been puzzling over the relationship of rules and discretion. When is a rule a rule? Does the term properly cover ‘quasi-legislation’ or what is now generally called ‘soft law’? In his seminal study, Discretionary Justice (Urbana, Louisiana State University Press, 1969), KC Davis argued that rules of this…