Relations between branches Flashcards
(6 cards)
Cases of SC
2016 Miller case - Gina Miller on Article 50 for leaving the EU, reinforced parliamentary sovereignty through unanimous agreement that parliament consent was needed to leave the EU. Led to questions about judicial bias
2019 Miller case - unlawful proroguing of parliament by BJ blocked by the SC
2025 For Scotland Women (FWS) ruled that biological women are recognised as that sex
Examples of relationship between executive and parliament
- 2000 case demonstrated that EU law rules over the acts passed by parliament
-Parliament holds the executive to account through amendments to legislation - Police, Crime, sentencing and Courts Act 2022
Supreme court and sovereignty examples
- Parliament given right to veto: 2023 Gender Recognition reform bill was struck down by the Westminster Parliament
- Supreme court can only interpet laws instead of making them due to judicial independence: Supreme court cannot stop legislation of Rwanda Plan despite several amendments of the bill being based on the rulings of the SC
-Referendum results act as advisory information for Parliament. Due to lack of codified constitution, referendum results are not legally binding and statute laws can ignore the results : e.g SC does not back Holyrod and Scottish people will to start a 2nd Scottish Independence referedum becasue the devolved power is originated from Westminster
What are the different types of sovereignty?
Local sovereignty - inconcievable to reverse devolution because devolved bodies are democratically legitimate (formed by referendum approval) therefore if Westminster would like to reverse devolution it would cause loss of public support and backlash.
Judicial sovereignty - constitutional duty to keep power of executive in checks. e.g Civil Partnership act 2019: allowing heterosexual to register civil partnership ->oblige to make law amendments
Popular sovereignty - it is inconcievable to not firstly resort to people via referendum
Examples of judicial neutrality/independence being broken
Lack of social diversity - all but one oxbridge educated and all come from relatively similar backgrounds which could cause bias
Media has undermined neutrality - judges faced extreme scrutiny during 2017 miller case and the Daily Mail found that 6 justices had personal relationships with people who had been openly supportive of the EU and that 5 had expressed sympathetic views towards EU
Growing willingness of ministers criticising the courts whilst the SC is taking an increasingly judicially active role - Dominic Cummings said he wanted to “get the judges sorted”
MPs and PMs scrutinise the supreme court too much - reduces their ability to follow their decisions with sufficient neutrality e.g Rishi Sunak commented on Rwanda Bill when Supreme Court said it was not compatible with HRA - said that he was tired of foreign courts blocking him and his patience has been drawn thin.
Examples of neutrality/independence being maintained
Judges have substantial legal training + long careers as barristers or judges whereby they have practiced neutrality - they first sign up for judicial neutrality when they become justices - they cannot make decisions without foundation in the rule of law
Justices have to withdraw if any conflict of interest arises within a case like a family member or acquaintance is involved which protects judicial neutrality
Constitutional Reform Act 2005 has greatly improved independence as it has seperated the judicial and legislative branches by removing law lords and seperated the 3 branches by reducing the role of the Lord Chancellor
Security of tenure - Judges cannot be removed from office based on decisions they make, only if they’re found to be corrupt can they be removed but this hasn’t happened yet.
