Devolution Flashcards
The Scottish parliament
They have the power to pass primary legislation. Once the Scottish Parliament has passed a bill and it has received Royal Assent it is known as an act of the Scottish Parliament
The Scottish parliament - Devolved matters
Act devolved all matters other than reserved matters. E.g health, education, civil and criminal law, tax-raising powers. There are express areas which are outside its competence and these are those that:
- Would form part of the law of any territory other than Scotland
- Relate to reserved matters
- Are incompatible with the ECHR
The Scottish parliament - The Sewel Convention
This convention established that Westminster would not normally legislate on devolved matters in Scotland without the consent of the Scottish Parliament. Whilst this provides a political constraint on Westminster it is not the role of the courts to police it and it doesn’t affect parliamentary sovereignty.
The Welsh parliament
Have the power to pass legislation on all matter that are not explicitly reserved to the Westminster Parliament e.g defence, foreign affairs, immigration.
The Welsh parliament - Sewel convention
It also applies to wales.This convention established that Westminster would not normally legislate on devolved matters in Wales without the consent of the Welsh Parliament. Whilst this provides a political constraint on Westminster it is not the role of the courts to police it and it doesn’t affect parliamentary sovereignty
Northern Ireland - The Good Friday Agreement
3 strands to the GFA:
1) Democratically elected assembly with a power-sharing executive
2) North/South ministerial council comprising ministers from Northern Ireland and the Irish republic. It co-operates and develops policies on matters of mutual interest
3) British-Irish council comprising representatives from the British and Irish govs., the devolved administrators, the Isle of Man - its purpose is to promote harmonious and mutually beneficial relationships between the peoples represented.
Northern Ireland - The Northern Ireland Assembly
They have the competence to legislate over transferred matters but defines transferred matters as all matters except reserved matters and excepted matters.
Northern Ireland - The Northern Ireland Assembly - Reserved matters
Reserved matters are areas where the Northern Ireland Assembly can legislate with the consent of the Secretary of State and may be devolved in the future. These include firearms and explosives, financial services and pensions regulation, broadcasting, disqualification from Assembly membership, consumer safety and intellectual property
Northern Ireland - The Northern Ireland Assembly - Excepted matters
Excepted matters will remain with the UK Government indefinitely and include international relations, defence and immigration.
Challenging devolved acts on common law grounds
Acts of the devolved legislatures cannot be challenged on common law grounds such as irrationality
Challenging an act on the grounds that it’s outside their jurisdiction
Under reserved powers model (Scotland and Wales) if someone challenges an act on the grounds that it’s outside the devolved parliament’s competence and it’s irrational the courts will reject the challenge unless the matter in the act (what the challenge is based on) is a reserved matter bc. that means they definitely cannot legislate on it - only if the act expressly excludes it
Sovereignty of parliament
The UK parliament has power to pass acts covering the whole of the UK even if the devolved legislatures oppose the act
