Constitutional and Administrative law + EU Law Flashcards
Where there is a overlap between prerogative power and statute…
Statute usually prevails
At it’s simplest, a constitution aims to..
Regulate the relationship between different institutions of the State, ensuring:
- No one arm becomes too powerful, and
- gov power is exercised within given parameters
Regulate the relationship between the State and its citizens, ensuring:
- gov has accountability to citizens and
- protection of fundamental individual rights
Dicey’s definition of a constitution
‘That set of rules which directly or indirectly affect the distribution and exercise of sovereign power in the state.’
Key sources of the UK constitution (in superiority order):
- Statute
- Case law / conventions
- Royal prerogative, Retained EU Law (now assimilated law), Authoritative Works
What are conventions?
Rules of behaviour which are not legally enforceable, but which are morally binding or have a practically binding effect
The executive:
This is the body or bodies which formulate and implement policy within the law. In the UK, the executive consists of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the various government departments, a politically neutral civil service, and other bodies carrying out government functions at the local level, ie local authorities or ‘councils’.
Nature of constitution:
It is incorrect, therefore, to say that the UK ‘has no written constitution’.
* A more accurate statement is that the constitution of the UK is ‘uncodified’ in a single document.
What does Parliament do?
The key functions of Parliament as a whole are to:
* Debate and scrutinise proposed legislation
* Propose amendments to legislation
* Extract information from the executive and hold it to account on its policies and acts
* Scrutinise public expenditure and taxation
The House of Commons
Members of the House of Commons – ‘MPs’ – are elected by the public in a ‘general election’. Or, occasionally, via a by-election.
Under s 4 of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, Parliament will be automatically dissolved after a 5-year period.
A general election can otherwise be triggered earlier in one of two ways:
* Following a request by the Prime Minister to the monarch for him to exercise his prerogative power to dissolve Parliament. This is effectively a tactical dissolution, conditioned by political
considerations.
- Following a ‘vote of no confidence in His Majesty’s Government’ (ie the current government)
Speaker of the House
The Speaker is an MP who has been elected to the office by other MPs. By convention, the Speaker remains politically impartial and so must resign from their political party on appointment.
They still work as an MP.
The Speaker has full authority to enforce the rules of behaviour in the House of Commons, for example by suspending MPs who refuse to behave appropriately.
The House of Lords
The House of Lords is not an elected body. It consists of nearly 800 ‘peers’.
A peer is someone with a high-ranking inherited noble title, such as a Duke, Marquess or Earl, or anyone who has been made a peer during their lifetime, a ‘life peer’.
Peerages have always been granted by the sovereign. Hereditary peerages are passed down through families.
Life peerages are also granted by the monarch, on the advice of the Prime
Minister - this is an example of a prerogative power.
In 1999, the House of Lords Act reduced the number of hereditary peers who may sit and vote in the House to 91. The remainder of members are life peers (granted peerage by the Sovereign, for
life), and bishops.
Many peers are also members of political parties. However, there are also over a hundred ‘crossbench’ peers, who are not party-political.
