Public Law - Parliamentary Sovereignty

Question 1

Definition: Dicey

Answer 1

“The principle of parliamentary sovereignty is that Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law whatever and that no person or body has a right to override or set aside legislation of parliament”

Question 2

4 Interrelated Rules

Answer 2

1. Parliament can make or unmake any law whatsoever
2. No body or court can question an Act of Parliament
3. No Parliament can bind itself, its successors or be bound by its predecessors
4. There is no limit in time or space to the legislative competence of Parliament

Question 3

Rule 1: make or unmake any laws

Answer 3

Madzimbamuto v Lardner-Burke: “It would be unconstitutional for the Parliament to do certain things meaning that the moral, political and other reasons against doing them is so strong that people would regard it as improper.” - Lord Reid

Question 4

No legal constraint on Parliament

Answer 4

“If a legislature decided that all blue babies should be murdered, preservation of blue eyed babies would be illegal” - Stephen (Science of Ethics).

Question 5

Rule 2: No body can question Parliament

Answer 5

Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway Co. v Wauchope 1942: “If a Bill has passed both Houses and received royal assent, no court of justice can inquire into the mode in which it was introduced.”

Question 6

Enacting Formula

Answer 6

“Be it enacted by the Monarch’s most excellent majesty, by and with advice of Lords spiritual, temporal, and commons.”
Under Parliament Acts 1911 & 1949.

Question 7

Lee v Bude & Torrington 1871

Answer 7

“If an act of parliament has been obtained improperly, it is for legislature to correct it, but as long as it exists in law, courts are bound to obey it.” _ Willes J

Question 8

British Railways Board v Pickin 1974

Answer 8

“Court is entitled to disregard a provision in an Act of Parliament on any ground must seem strange or startling to anyone with any knowledge of the law of our constitution” - Lord Reid

Question 9

Can courts reject an Act because of its content

Answer 9

No - Parliament is supreme and there is no power in court to question its validity
R v Jordan 1967

Question 10

Rule 3: Cannot bind itself

Answer 10

” If an Act of Parliament had a clause in it that it should never be repealed, the same power that made it, may appeal it” - Herbert CJ

Question 11

Express and Implied Repeal

Answer 11

Godden v Hales 1686

Question 12

Vauxhall Estates v Liverpool Corporation 1932

Answer 12

“No act of parliament can effectively provide that no future act will interfere with its provisions” - Avory J