Parliamentary Sovereignty Flashcards
What is parliamentary sovereignty?
The ultimate authority in the state and the ultimate source of legal power
Acts of Parliament are …
… the highest form of law
1) Legal sovereignty
2) Political sovereignty
1) Parliament
2) the electorate (the people)
There is always a political check on Parliament
Origins of PS - a constant battle over who has power in the UK
Who is this battle between?
Parliament and the Monarchy
1688:
The Glorious Revolution
1689:
The Bill of Rights
Glorious revolution led to the …
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights saw …
… the powers of the Monarchy reduced by Parliament
Lord Reid in Picken v British Railways Board
The importance of the Glorious Revolution
“In earlier times many learned lawyers seem to have believed that an Act of Parliament could be disregarded, in so far as it was contrary to the law of God, or the law of natural justice, but since the supremacy of Parliament was finally demonstrated by the Revolution on 1688, any such idea has become obsolete”
Is sovereignty located in statute?
No: there is no formal constitution in the UK; it is ‘unwritten’
What are the places is sovereignty located in?
1) political fact
2) a rule of common law
3) claimed it was supreme and so it was
1) sovereignty built from political fact?
we all adhere to parliament as the highest form of law and therefore it becomes political fact that it is sovereign
Hart - ‘Rule of Recognition’
2) sovereignty as a rule of common law?
acceptance by judges that parliament has the ultimate and unlimited authority as the highest law of the land
3) sovereignty by parliament claiming it was supreme and so it was?
they are the main authority - they could even withdraw this claim if they wished (this is a limited source)
Sovereignty as defined by AV Dicey:
“Parliament has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having the right to set aside the legalisation of Parliament.”
