Tag: Sewel Convention
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Richard Brant and Lauren Butler: Reform UK’s Plans for “Getting Tough on Illegal Immigration”: From Legal Reset to Sunset
On 26 August 2025 Nigel Farage (Leader of Reform UK) and Zia Yusuf (now Head of Policy at Reform UK) unveiled their plan titled, ‘Operation Restoring Justice’. Key points from the plan were also reiterated at the Next Step Conference on 05 September 2025. Reform UK address the topic of immigration in their plan, adding…
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Stephen Tierney: Towards a Principle of Positive Engagement?: The House of Lords Constitution Committee reports on The Governance of the Union
Over the past decade the House of Lords Constitution Committee has immersed itself in the principles, purposes and operation of devolution. Last week marked 10 years since the referendum on Scottish independence, and in that time the Committee has published multiple reports on the changing face of the territorial constitution, offering encouragement, detailed critique and…
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Chris McCorkindale and Aileen McHarg: Rescuing the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill? The Scottish Government’s Challenge to the Section 35 Order
Introduction On 17 January, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack MP, made an Order under s.35 of the Scotland Act 1998 prohibiting the Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer from presenting the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR Bill) for Royal Assent. The Bill, which was passed with cross party support on 22 December 2022,…
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Aileen McHarg: The Future of the Territorial Constitution under Labour? The Report of the Commission on the UK’s Future
On Monday, the Labour Party published the report of the Commission on the UK’s Future, chaired by Gordon Brown: A New Britain: Renewing Our Democracy and Rebuilding Our Economy. The report focuses on changes that can be delivered within a single parliamentary term, and therefore discusses only those issues which the Commission regards as most…
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Iain Jamieson: Effect of the Bill of Rights upon the meaning of Convention Rights under the Scotland Act
The relationship between the Scotland Act 1998 (“the SA”), Convention rights and the Human Rights Act 1998 (“the HRA”) is well known. Convention rights are embedded in the Scottish constitution. The Scottish Parliament cannot legislate, and Scottish Ministers cannot act, in any way which is incompatible with those rights (SA ss. 29(2)(d), 53,54,57(2)). The SA…
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Stephen Tierney and Alison Young: Constitution Committee report on the Future Governance of the UK
Following a year-long inquiry into the future governance of the United Kingdom, the House of Lords Constitution Committee today publishes its report, Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century. The document comprises 10 chapters, beginning with reflections upon the state of the Union. It then turns to parliamentary sovereignty, relations between…
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Aileen McHarg and Alison L. Young: The Resilience of the (Old) British Constitution
In 2009, Vernon Bogdanor wrote about The New British Constitution. His thesis was that a decade of New Labour reforms had produced a shift in the nature of the constitution, from one based on parliamentary sovereignty, to one based on the ‘sovereignty of the constitution’. Since 2009, further constitutional reforms have been implemented by governments…
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Ronan Cormacain: Unaccountability – The Disease within Government
Pierre Janelle diagnosed the root cause of The Catholic Reformation as “anarchy the disease within the church”. It is my contention that unaccountability is the disease within Government and the root cause of many of its shortcomings today. Unaccountability means the reluctance of the Government to be held to account by Parliament, the courts, constitutional…
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Kenneth Campbell: Constitutional Dogs That Barked and Dogs That Did Not: The Scottish Continuity Bill in the Supreme Court
Introductory Somewhat overshadowed by the Wightman saga, and the unscheduled Conservative leadership demarche, the UKSC decision in the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity)(Scotland) Bill compatibility reference was handed down in the same week in December. It will be argued this decision contains more of lasting constitutional significance which lies both in the…
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Christopher McCrudden and Daniel Halberstam: Northern Ireland’s Supreme Court Brexit Problem (and the UK’s too)
There are many unfortunate results of Brexit, but one of the most problematic is the adverse effects it has had on current and future relationships between Britain and Ireland, and within Northern Ireland. These adverse effects were entirely predictable and show little sign of abating, significantly contributing to the difficulties the UK government faces in…