Is the sovereignty of the UK Parliament a meaningless concept and should it be abandoned?

Is the sovereignty of the UK Parliament a meaningless concept and should it be abandoned? PDF Author: Roy Whymark
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656348073
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 9

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: 77%, Birkbeck, University of London (University of London), course: Contemporary British Politics, language: English, abstract: This paper considers whether the concept of ‘parliamentary sovereignty’ is a reality in the modern United Kingdom. To frame the boundaries of this essay, ‘parliamentary’ is taken as referring to action taken by the Westminster-based tripartite authorities of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the British monarchy. Since an incontrovertible definition of ‘sovereignty’ is more difficult, I turn to Dicey (1915) who uses two criteria. Firstly, Parliament has ‘the right to make or unmake any law’, and secondly ‘no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament’. Taking these together, I define ‘parliamentary sovereignty’ as a concept which considers that the Westminster Parliament has complete control over the legal affairs of the UK and that no individual or body can override any Act of Parliament. This also incorporates the Diceyan concept that no Parliament can bind its successor. In recent decades, the reality of parliamentary sovereignty has been increasingly questioned due to a number of constitutional changes. In particular, this paper considers the impact on parliamentary sovereignty of: (i) membership of the European Union; (ii) the passing of the Human Rights Act; (iii) the changing role of the judiciary; and (iv) devolution.

Is the sovereignty of the UK Parliament a meaningless concept and should it be abandoned?

Is the sovereignty of the UK Parliament a meaningless concept and should it be abandoned? PDF Author: Roy Whymark
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656348073
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 9

Get Book Here

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: 77%, Birkbeck, University of London (University of London), course: Contemporary British Politics, language: English, abstract: This paper considers whether the concept of ‘parliamentary sovereignty’ is a reality in the modern United Kingdom. To frame the boundaries of this essay, ‘parliamentary’ is taken as referring to action taken by the Westminster-based tripartite authorities of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the British monarchy. Since an incontrovertible definition of ‘sovereignty’ is more difficult, I turn to Dicey (1915) who uses two criteria. Firstly, Parliament has ‘the right to make or unmake any law’, and secondly ‘no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament’. Taking these together, I define ‘parliamentary sovereignty’ as a concept which considers that the Westminster Parliament has complete control over the legal affairs of the UK and that no individual or body can override any Act of Parliament. This also incorporates the Diceyan concept that no Parliament can bind its successor. In recent decades, the reality of parliamentary sovereignty has been increasingly questioned due to a number of constitutional changes. In particular, this paper considers the impact on parliamentary sovereignty of: (i) membership of the European Union; (ii) the passing of the Human Rights Act; (iii) the changing role of the judiciary; and (iv) devolution.

Parliamentary Sovereignty

Parliamentary Sovereignty PDF Author: Jeffrey Goldsworthy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139491512
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This book has four main themes: (1) a criticism of 'common law constitutionalism', the theory that Parliament's authority is conferred by, and therefore is or can be made subordinate to, judge-made common law; (2) an analysis of Parliament's ability to abdicate, limit or regulate the exercise of its own authority, including a revision of Dicey's conception of sovereignty, a repudiation of the doctrine of implied repeal and the proposal of a novel theory of 'manner and form' requirements for law-making; (3) an examination of the relationship between parliamentary sovereignty and statutory interpretation, defending the reality of legislative intentions, and their indispensability to sensible interpretation and respect for parliamentary sovereignty; and (4) an assessment of the compatibility of parliamentary sovereignty with recent constitutional developments, including the expansion of judicial review of administrative action, the Human Rights and European Communities Acts and the growing recognition of 'constitutional principles' and 'constitutional statutes'.

The EU Bill and parliamentary sovereignty

The EU Bill and parliamentary sovereignty PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215555885
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
This report was produced online to coincide with the second reading of the European Union Bill (Bill 106, session 2010-11, ISBN 9780215557339) on 7 December 2010. The Committee is critical that it had been given only four weeks to investigate and prepare a report on the Bill's provision affirming the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty. This report sets out in detail the legal relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union and the current debate on the scope of Parliamentary sovereignty, then evaluates the sovereignty clause (clause 18) in the light of evidence received. The evidence suggests that the legislative supremacy of Parliament is not currently under threat from EU law. However, the Committee believes recent UK court decisions have called into question the legal basis of Parliamentary sovereignty and the legislative supremacy of Parliament. It concludes that Clause 18 is a reaffirmation of the role of a sovereign Parliament in a dualist state, nothing more, nothing less. It does not address the competing primacies of EU and national law and much evidence suggests the clause is not needed. The Bill's proposal that approval to certain changes in EU law will require first to be approved by an Act of Parliament and that the change should be approved by a referendum is also considered. This "referendum lock" is viewed as an attempt to bind future Parliaments, but the Committee concludes there is no clear evidence that one Parliament has authority to act in this way.

British Politics

British Politics PDF Author: Dennis Kavanagh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 736

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Book Description
Written in a clear accessible style, Dennis Kavanagh has produced this lucid analysis of the British political system, designed for anyone taking a first course in the subject.

Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act

Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act PDF Author: Alison L Young
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1847314732
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
The Human Rights Act 1998 is criticised for providing a weak protection of human rights. The principle of parliamentary legislative supremacy prevents entrenchment, meaning that courts cannot overturn legislation passed after the Act that contradicts Convention rights. This book investigates this assumption, arguing that the principle of parliamentary legislative supremacy is sufficiently flexible to enable a stronger protection of human rights, which can replicate the effect of entrenchment. Nevertheless, it is argued that the current protection should not be strengthened. If correctly interpreted, the Human Rights Act can facilitate democratic dialogue that enables courts to perform their proper correcting function to protect rights from abuse, whilst enabling the legislature to authoritatively determine contestable issues surrounding the extent to which human rights should be protected alongside other rights, interests and goals of a particular society. This understanding of the Human Rights Act also provides a different justification for the preservation of Dicey's conception of parliamentary sovereignty in the UK Constitution.

Sovereignty & the Responsibility to Protect

Sovereignty & the Responsibility to Protect PDF Author: Luke Glanville
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022607708X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In 2011, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973, authorizing its member states to take measures to protect Libyan civilians from Muammar Gadhafi’s forces. In invoking the “responsibility to protect,” the resolution draws on the principle that sovereign states are responsible and accountable to the international community for the protection of their populations and that the international community can act to protect populations when national authorities fail to do so. The idea that sovereignty includes the responsibility to protect is often seen as a departure from the classic definition, but it actually has deep historical roots. In Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect, Luke Glanville argues that this responsibility extends back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that states have since been accountable for this responsibility to God, the people, and the international community. Over time, the right to national self-governance came to take priority over the protection of individual liberties, but the noninterventionist understanding of sovereignty was only firmly established in the twentieth century, and it remained for only a few decades before it was challenged by renewed claims that sovereigns are responsible for protection. Glanville traces the relationship between sovereignty and responsibility from the early modern period to the present day, and offers a new history with profound implications for the present.

Definition and Development of Human Rights and Popular Sovereignty in Europe

Definition and Development of Human Rights and Popular Sovereignty in Europe PDF Author: European Commission for Democracy through Law
Publisher: Council of Europe
ISBN: 9789287171344
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
What role do the people play in defining and developing human rights? This volume explores the very topical issue of the lack of democratic legitimisation of national and international courts and the question of whether rendering the original process of defining human rights more democratic at the national and international level would improve the degree of protection they afford. The authors venture to raise the crucial question: When can a democratic society be considered to be mature enough so as to be trusted to provide its own definition of human rights obligations?

History of the Theory of Sovereignty Since Rousseau

History of the Theory of Sovereignty Since Rousseau PDF Author: Charles Edward Merriam
Publisher: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.
ISBN: 1886363765
Category : Sovereignty
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description


Betting The House

Betting The House PDF Author: Tim Ross
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
ISBN: 1785903233
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
On 18th April 2017, Theresa May stunned Britain by announcing a snap election. With poll leads of more than 20 points over Jeremy Corbyn's divided Labour Party, the first Tory landslide since Margaret Thatcher's day seemed certain. Seven weeks later, Tory dreams had turned to dust. Instead of the 100-seat victory she'd been hoping for, May had lost her majority, leaving Parliament hung and her premiership hanging by a thread. Labour MPs, meanwhile, could scarcely believe their luck. Far from delivering the wipe-out that most predicted, Corbyn's popular, anti-austerity agenda won the party 30 seats, cementing his position as leader and denying May the right to govern alone. This timely and indispensable book gets to the bottom of why the Tories failed, and how Corbyn's Labour overcame impossible odds to emerge closer to power than at any election since the era of Tony Blair. Who was to blame for the Tories' mistakes? How could so many politicians and pollsters fail to see what was coming? And what was the secret of Corbyn's apparently unstoppable rise? Through new interviews and candid private accounts from key players, political journalists Tim Ross and Tom McTague set out to answer these questions and more, piecing together the inside story of this most dramatic and important of elections.

Constitutional Idolatry and Democracy

Constitutional Idolatry and Democracy PDF Author: Brian Christopher Jones
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788971108
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Constitutional Idolatry and Democracy investigates the increasingly important subject of constitutional idolatry and its effects on democracy. Focussed around whether the UK should draft a single written constitution, it suggests that constitutions have been drastically and persistently over-sold throughout the years, and that their wider importance and effects are not nearly as significant as constitutional advocates maintain. Chapters analyse whether written constitutions can educate the citizenry, invigorate voter turnout, or deliver ‘We the People’ sovereignty.