Parliamentary Sovereignty

The UK Constitution
1. establishes relationship between the ruler and ruled
2. affects everyone in society, so will always be contentious - LJ Laws The Good Constituion
3. unwritten, supreme, monarchial, separated powers, flexible
Traditional meaning Dicey can make or unmake any law
One of the two pillars of the constitution, or one of three principles
Parliament cannot bind itself or successors
1. Ellen St Estates v Minister of Health [1934]
  1. Maughan LJ 'parliament cannot bind its successor in the form of subsequent legislation"
    1. no entrenchment
2. unlike in countries with a written constitution
  1. Germany - first 19 articles can never be changed or repealed
supreme political authority
1. Earl of Shaftesbury (1688) England's parliament's absolute and supreme power gives life and motion to the English government
Should there be PS?
1. Hobbes life would be brutish and cruel - war of all against all
2. Lord Halisham 1976 lecture "elective dictatorship"
3. Pickin v British Railway Board [1974] Lord Reid "the idea that a court could disregard any provision in an act of parliament must seem strange and startling to anyone with a knowledge of the history of the UK constitution"
Still sovereign?
1. affect of EU
  1. European Communities Act 1973
    1. s. 4(2) supremacy of EC law
    2. Van Gend En Loos [1963]
      1. "new legal order"
    3. Costa v ENEL [1964]
      1. supremacy of national law would put the community into question
    4. Internationale Handelgesellschaft [1970] EC law supreme
    5. Simmenthal [1978]
    6. Factortame [1991]
      1. Lord Bridge - EC established supremacy even before UK membership, parliament accepted limitation voluntarily, accepted all ECJ decisions in past
    7. Equal Opportunities Case [1994]
      1. Lord Keith - ECJ cannot strike down national law but can judicially review and declare incompatible
2. Thoburn v City of Sunderland et al [2002] Laws LJ there should be a hierachy recognised: ordinary - constitutional
3. Transport Roth Gmbh v SoS Home Department [2003] British system inbetween PS and CS
  1. constitutional/fundamental rights have been recognised and supported by common law
4. Jackson v Attorney General [2005]
  1. Lord Steyn: no place for Dicey PS in modern UK
  2. Lord Hope: the fact that this case is being heard at all shows there is a part for courts to play in defining PS
5. December 2012 - attempt to repeal HR 1998
6. R v SoS ex parte Simms [2000] Lord Hoffman 'fundamental rights cannot be overriden with general or ambiguous words"
Can choose it's own composition, procedure and length
1. Parliaments Act 1911 - Maximum 5 years
  1. Previously changed WW2 Prolongation of Parliament Acts 40 - 44

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Parliamentary Sovereignty

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