Royal prerogative Flashcards
What are the prerogatives?
The legal powers of the crown
What is the executive and what powers do they have?
The executive is the government and they have delegated legislative powers. (Secondary legislation is law created by ministers (or other bodies) under powers given to them by an Act of Parliament (primary legislation).
What are conventions and what do they embody?
Conventions are non legal rules that embody important principles of the constitution
What do the royal prerogatives attach to?
They attach to the crown
- The government acts in the name of the crown
-The royal prerogatives give the Government a separate legal strand of authority to act
The prerogatives are divided up into three powers. What divided them and what are they divided into.
The Public Administration Committee in its report, Taming the Prerogative, (2003) divided up prerogatives into three categories:
a) the Queen’s constitutional prerogatives
b) the legal prerogatives of the Crown and
c) prerogative executive powers.
Diceys definition of the prerogatives.
Dicey’s definition, “the residue of discretionary or arbitrary authority which at any given time is legally left in the hands of the Crown”.
Case relating to royal prerogative and its relation
R v Secretary of State for the home department
-the issue revolves around whether the Home Secretary (a government minister exercising executive authority) had the legal power to authorize the issue of plastic baton rounds or CS gas to a chief constable without the consent of the local authority. This touches upon the broader question of the extent of executive authority in matters related to law enforcement and public safety.
-Cases like the Northumbria Police Authority case contribute to the ongoing discussion and clarification of the boundaries of executive authority, including how it interacts with other branches of government, such as local authorities or Parliament.
3 Issues in the R v Secretary of state for the home department case
Statutory Authority under the 1964 Police Act: This issue concerns whether the provisions of the Police Act of 1964 conferred statutory authority upon the Home Secretary to maintain and provide items such as plastic baton rounds or CS gas to a chief constable. In other words, the question is whether the Act explicitly granted the Home Secretary the power to take such actions.
Prerogative Power to Maintain the Queen’s Peace: This issue relates to the historical prerogative power of the Crown to maintain law and order, often referred to as “keeping the Queen’s peace.” The question here is whether the Home Secretary possessed inherent prerogative powers to take actions necessary for maintaining public order and safety, regardless of any specific statutory authority.
Relationship between Statutory Authority and Prerogative Power: If there was indeed a prerogative power to maintain the Queen’s peace, this issue concerns whether the provisions of the 1964 Police Act displaced or replaced that prerogative power, or if the power continued to exist alongside the statutory framework provided by the Act. In essence, the question is whether the Act was intended to limit or preserve the Home Secretary’s prerogative powers in matters related to law enforcement.
