Relations Between Branches

Question 1

Mmebersp in eu took uk legal sov

Answer 1

Legal sovereignty do
Hra

Authoritative works like bogarts english constitution suggests that while the EU has some legal parliament is sovereign and can make and unmake law - can leave eu or get hra out of law.artule 50 2017 triggered leaving eu.

Brexit means that the UK withdrew from the Treaty of Rome, meaning EU law would no longer take precedence over UK law, and the ECJ would no longer have jurisdiction over the UK
- Makes UKSC top court of the land
- SC not longer has to enforce EU law over UK
- Proportion of its cases been EU law in recent years
- STILL has to comply with EcHR

-ECHR rules in 2005 in the case of John Hirst that a blanket ban on allowing prisones to vote was incompatibile with ECHR- allowed 500 prisoners to take legal action through the ECHR
Prisoders cant vote now failed

Question 2

Eu had legal sov

Answer 2

1992 Maastricht treaty which consolidated powers of the EU creating a quasi-federal state gave EU powers over immigration

Jurisdiction of the ECJ extends to the UK so cases can be appealed ot the highest EU court. So ECJ undermins legal sovereignty supersedes SC in the UK and appellants can appeal if rights in ECHR have been contrasted,
\
European Communtties Act 1972- entered EU, Treaty of Rome into UK law. Gave European laws precedence over UK statues, UK could be called to account at the EcJ, after factortame 1990, UK were permitted to suspend UK statutes that appeared to be in violation of EU law

Factortame 1990: ECJ Established the precedent that UK Courts could suspend any UK statute law where it appeared to violate EU law- came from Spanish fishing company which challenged the legality of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988, which attempted to close the loop hole for Spanish fishing boats to register as British to use British quota

Question 3

Uk had political sov over eu

Answer 3

POlitical sovereignty
Parliament holds the EU commission accountable as its an unelected body
EXAMPLES

Low turnout in european elections only rising by 1% in 2019 to 38%, turnout is less than half of majority of eligible voters.

Voted 52% leave in 2016

Question 4

Uk didn’t have political so over eu

Answer 4

The UK have a minority of MEP no eto on legislation - no legal influence.

Slowly becoming more integrated with new treated GVIE EXAMPLES OF FURTHER INTEGRAION

Question 5

Uk maintained economic sov in the eu

Answer 5

Economic Sovereignty

Started as the EEC 1972 , restricted foreign independency

Brexit means opportunity to trade increased

Refusal to join the Euro

Question 6

Uk did not maintain political sov in eu

Answer 6

Membershop led to freedom of movement, goods and labour so pressure of uk to have remained.

Attempted to join economic thing ( black wednsday ) shows european pressure to cater to satdnrds the uk could not ???

Question 7

Examples of sc defending hra

Answer 7

nstitutional statutes are not entrenched
(ECHR)

Anti terrosm crime and securities act 2001 , the law lrods made a declaration of incompatibility as the act allowed for the indefinite detention of SUSPECTED foreign terrorists with no charges to be apprehended and have assets frozen.
AHMAD V HMT 2010

RECENT EXAMPLE TERROISM?

Tigere V Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (2015) demonstrates this well. Tigere, female student from Zambia, arrived in UK aged 6, did not have permanent residency, and so could not apply for student loans to get a university degree. UKSC accepted the appeal on the grounds that it violated Article 2 of the ECHR (right to education) and Article 14 (prohibiting discrimination)

Sc rules Ruwanda unsafe to send assyclum seekers

Question 8

Examples sc can’t defend hra

Answer 8

The act got royal assent in a month, displaying the bill to have poor scrutiny passed in a panic due to 9/11 threat of terrorism. Judges cant strike bill down only decalre incompatible.

Al rawi v security forces 2010. Zeveral men had been held at guantaemo bay claimed compensation for their alleged deternion and mistreatment.
Government used ‘ closed material procedure’ SOTUL ised common lsw to rule this unconstitutional in ordinary civil trials parliament responded with justice and security act 2013, allowed civil courts to use CMP when such evidence would undermine national security.

Parliament passed a bill to say Ruwanda safe bypassing sc

Question 9

Sc can defend rights via constitutional law

Answer 9

Common law recognises statues cannot be eroded immediately by palrimane tand courts can issue declarations of incompatibility which are politically hard to ignore

2017 and 2019
Gina miller cases

Question 10

Sc can’t defend rights on common law

Answer 10

Common law can be swiftly overridden be ignored parliament

Eg. sex offenders rights to apppeal agaisnt registration fornlife (aprile 2012)
R on the application of f v sec of home dept 2009, sex offenders challenged sexual offences act 2003 whereby all persons sentences to 30 months imprisonment or more for sexual offences become subject to lifelong registry by police.
governemnts positino ws that individuals who had committed serious sexcual offences in england and wales must register with police for life after arrest but SCOTUK argued this to be a breach of rights
Nothing came of the case the act is in effect and sex offenders over 30 months in jail have to register for life.

Question 11

Sc can rep diversity

Answer 11

Lack of diversity
Of the 12 judges 2 are woman ( lady simler and lady rose ) and none of BAME backgrounds so may ineffectively be able to sympahtise with minority causes.
Eg. Radmacher V. Grantino 2010 involving prenups between marriag partners a majority upheld that claims made after the ivproce shou;d be limited. Lady hale ( ex-president of the scotuk) voted against it believing this would be against the benefit of woman. Displaying gender representtion to be imprtant as true neutrality in this case was difficult and voted on genfer lines on this issue voting 8-1.

Question 12

Sc can’t rep diversity

Answer 12

Judicial neutrality
Conflicts of interest
Public activity ( educate public )
These are guaranteed by: Security of Tenure, Guaranteed salaries, contempt of court, a growing separation of powers, an independent appointments system, training and experience. And Impartiality
guaranteed by Anonymity, Political Activity, high-level training and legal justifications of judgements

Question 13

Sc control gov in hr matters

Answer 13

Challenges governemnt in human rights over health and social care
eg. AM zimbabueae v Home secretary 2020
MORE RECENT ONE
Ultra Vires and the European Court of Human Rights:
- Reilly v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2016) - Ruled that the Department for work and pensions, although not breaking Aritcle 4 of the EcHR had acted unlawful because the department had acted Ultra Vires beyond the authority given to it by parliament. Entirely up to the government
to decide how they wished to proceed in light of the declaration of incompatibility

-UKSC Declares governments 2004 Civil Partnership Act incompatible with HRA in 2018- government amended act in 2019

Check gov on national security and civl rights

Ahmed v HMT did brown pass act to let his assets be frozen regardless

-Investigatory powers act 2016- allows for greater state surveillance in Britain- with the police given new powers to collect date from devices and requires web and phone companies to store everyone’s web browsing history for months and give unprecedented access to the data on police

Belmarsh 9 , aw lords declared incompatible as they were imrisoner w out a trial apart of crime and securities act blair had to release them

Question 14

Sc doesn’t control gov in hr matters

Answer 14

Private jason smith 2010 died of heatstroke his family argueed the authoruty should be kept him safe high court ruled in favor of the family but scotuk said it did to combat situations.
FIND OUT MORE ABT THIS AND HOW RELATES TO POINT

Ruwanda scheme they said unsafe country rpsunak passed 2024 act that it is

• Begum v Special Immigration Appeals Commission and the Secretary of State for the Home Department (2020)- right to challenge withdrawal of British citizenship- UKSC ruled that she would not be allowed to return to the UK to fight her citizenship case
  2011: Al Rawi v the Security Service: Secret hearings, outlawed the use of secret evidence in court by the intelligence services
  Gov responded making an act shown in previous plan

Question 15

Sc control gov on political issues

Answer 15

Checks government political power

Miller cases

In august 2019 BJ sought to
suspend parliament for 5
weeks, record time
Achieved through royal
prerogative not a vote in
parliament and MPs felt this
gave parliament limited time to
scrutinise Brexit legislation

before 31 October

Case brought in by Gina Miller

who had brought on an earlier

case in 2017
A case involving extent of PM
power and ability of parliament

to debate and decide on key

issues, also brought spotlight to
function of royal prerogative
Gov defeated and sc ruled the propagation was unlawful and scotu overruled appeal court decided coirts had the power to rule on the use of prerogative scotuk ruled the motives of the pm and effect of proroguing frustrated and present parliaments function and supervsor to exec cause rep a vocitory for comsititionsl sovereignty

Question 16

Sc don’t control gov on political issues

Answer 16

2019 miller case had little effect on vrexit process as johnson called another election and won 365 seats.

2014: R (Nicklinson) v Ministry of Justice - Article 8 of the ECHR could not be used to justify assisted suicide

Question 17

Sc check gov on national security and civil rights

Answer 17

Check gov on national security and civl rights

Ahmed v HMT did brown pass act to let his assets be frozen regardless

-Investigatory powers act 2016- allows for greater state surveillance in Britain- with the police given new powers to collect date from devices and requires web and phone companies to store everyone’s web browsing history for months and give unprecedented access to the data on police

Question 18

Sc doesn’t check gov on civil rights and Nat sec

Answer 18

Begum v Special Immigration Appeals Commission and the Secretary of State for the Home Department (2020)- right to challenge withdrawal of British citizenship- UKSC ruled that she would not be allowed to return to the UK to fight her citizenship case
2011: Al Rawi v the Security Service: Secret hearings, outlawed the use of secret evidence in court by the intelligence services
Government used ‘ closed material procedure’ SOTUL ised common lsw to rule this unconstitutional in ordinary civil trials parliament responded with justice and security act 2013, allowed civil courts to use CMP when such evidence would undermine national security.

Question 19

Commons is effective scrutiny

Answer 19

PMQs:
50% of questions asked by the executives party members-> Can be staged or asked before the questioning in common to executive so they can be ready to answer the question-> decreases legitimacy and trust within the executive

Opposition days:
20 opposition days per parliamentary session-> 17 given to Labour(largest opposition party HOC) | 3 given to SNP(second largest opposition in HOC) out of a total 152 days in the 2021-22 session-> very limited scrutiny towards executive due to a small amount of days allocated to opposition parties being able to question and dictate the agenda against the executive

SNP opposition day on Gaza ceasefire motion was scrapped and was changed to Labours motion on the gaza ceasefire because of Starmer talking beforehand to the speaker on the issue of Labour MPs gaining death threats-> shows the limited effectiveness of opposition days towards the executive as in some instances the motions aren’t properly argued and discussed

Executive is able to dominate parliament due to the lack of scrutiny made by opposition parties because of the functions of the House of Commons favouring the executive

Question 20

Commons poor at scrutiny

Answer 20

PMQs:
50% of questions asked by opposition members-> Questions asked to executive can catch them off guard and occur tough scrutiny towards the executive

Urgent questions:
2022-23 parliament had 175 urgent question-> Increased over time compared to the year 21-22 with roughly 100-> opposition scrutiny getting stronger and more effective against the executive with constant bombardment of questions towards the actions of the executive

An urgent Question was granted to Conservative MP David Davis about the Post Office Horizon Scandal. The question was posed to the Department for Business and Trade.-> Liam Byrne, the chair of the business select committee, interviewed the chief executive of the Post Office, Nick Read, saying justice required those representing the organisation to work “round the clock”.

Question 21

Hol ineffective check on exec

Answer 21

hunting act2004
eventually passed after speaker of commons envoked parliament acts 1911 and 1949. Exec dominated hoc and hoc dominates hol then exec dominates hol.
Life peers are also appointed by PMs often the 2 main parties then ideologically aligned with government.
Cameron appointed to the lords under Sunak to make him foreign secretary 2023 didn’t need to stand in a bielection.

Question 22

Hol effective check on gov

Answer 22

lord Griffith (labour MP) granted a platform by the House of Lords to talk of his own experience and allowed him to effectively scrutinise free school meal funding over holidays during Covid. Variety if backgrounds allowed for proper scrutiny as House of Lords is historically made up of elites
Hunting act 2004 house delayed it for a year frustrated it also caused some public unrest by countryside alliance
Cameron appointing shami chakrabati 2016
She scrutinised him often and example of honourable appointment

Question 23

Committee provide poor check in executive

Answer 23

Select Committees:
The government can use its majority on Select Committees to try to influence reports in their favour.

Govt can reject reports the some of the time and there is very little the Select Committees can do if the government doesn’t follow up on their recommendations
Boris Johnson avoided the Liaison committee, to “concentrate on Brexit”

Public Accounts Committees:
Oversees government expenditure and to ensure they are effective and honest. The committee is seen as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in government financial operations

Backbench Business Committee

Question 24

Committee priovide adequate check in executive

Answer 24

Select Committees:
They can call for expert witnesses and can ask for documents and people to appear before them and give testimony.
Daren Jones, Labour MP, led on issues related to the economy, business and jobs as well as national security and climate change.
Also a prominent member of the Liaison Committee
Questioned P&O Ferries CEO, calling him a “merciless criminal”

The PM must appear twice a year before the Liaison Committee, which is made up of the chairs of select committees, and must justify government actions