Parliamentary Sovereignty Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is PArliament according to Dicey
- ‘Parliament means, in the mouth of a lawyer … the King, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons: these three bodies acting together may be aptly described as the “King in Parliament”, and constitute Parliament.’
What is Sovereignty
Main organisational principle in which modern political systems are founded
Governing Authority able to exercise absolute political power within that community
Difference between sovereignty and Supremacy
Supremecy - body which is hierarchically above all others
Sovereignty - suggests omnipotence, the ability to do anything
What is Coke CJs definition of Parliamentary Sovereignty
(Pre and up to civil war)
in order to make law there must be 3 components to agree - Lords commons and Royal assent of King
It is transcendent and absolute
Blasckstone Definition of Sovereignty
Agrees with Coke
What PArliament do cannot be undone
AV Dicey Definition of Parliamentary Sovereignty
Parliament thus defined 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 a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.”
Re Dr Bonhams Case
ROyal college of physicians could impose penalties - fined Bonham
King and College get shares of fine
Coke CJ Judgement
Concerns about bias
Common Law will control acts of Parliament if act is against common right
Case of Proclamations
Limiting house construction in London to ensure food available
King by proclamation cannot alter law of land Coke Cj
Blackstones Commentaries
What parliament can do
Alter the line of succession to the throne.
Change the established religion of the country
Dissolve itself and create a new constitution and new parliaments
Set the length of its own life
Only Parliament as a whole is sovereign not its individual elements - Stockdale v Hansard
Dicey view on Parliament
- Was not ‘… democratic by modern standards’ (43)
- ‘… vested total legislative authority in a political elite’ (43)
- ‘… a ruling elite who could use it [PS] to maintain the status quo.’ (44)
- Dicey himself
- Placed ‘… his confidence in the English establishment, rather than … representative democracy.’ (44)
- Very unhappy with the idea of Irish Home Rule
- ‘… as his faith in the ruling class waned, so did Dicey’s faith in the sovereignty of Parliament…’ (44)
Diveys Legal sovereignty
no person or body has a right to override or set aside the legislation of parliament
Can Parliament bind future parliaments
For parliament to remain sovereign over time - no act can permanently reduce its sovereignty
where does parliaments sovereignty come from
Political fact
HWR wade - Ultimate political fact upon which the whole system of legislation hangs
What does Dicey say regarding limits of legal sovereignty
Parliament is controlled by external and internal limitations
external limit - possibility that his subjects or a large number will disobey or resist laws
Internal limit - internal limit arises from the context which parliament exists in such as moral feelings of the time and society/social condition
What is Manner and form
- Manner and form =
- The way a law must be passed
- The style / features a law should possess…
- … to be validly made
- Binding by Manner and Form - Jennings
- Jennings asserted that Parliament could bind future Parliaments by altering what was recognised as law and valid law-making processes.
Rules must be made in customary manner and form
Jackson v AG
, in manner and form the 1911 Act simply provides for an alternative mode by which Parliament, as reconstituted for specific purposes, may make laws.’
1911 and 1949 Parliament act allows for laws to be passed with without authorisation from Lords
What is a constitutional Statute
- ‘(a) conditions the legal relationship between citizen and State in some general, overarching manner, or
- (b) enlarges or diminishes the scope of what we would now regard as fundamental constitutional rights’ (at [62]).
