Parliamentary Sovereignty Essay

The doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty is about the relationship between the parliament and the courts. Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution; it is the highest authority in the UK. Parliament can repeal or amend any law it wishes. Thus through the procedure of the House of Commons and the House of Lords passing the legislation to the monarch and the monarch gives assent. In result, making the legislation and no court or higher body has legal power to declare the legislation validity. The UK constitution is uncodified which means it is unwritten. According to Professor Leyland’s he says that the history of the British constitution is significant to the current practice . For example, the Bill of Rights 1689 gave

Despite in other countries such as Germany and USA who have written constitution and everyone is obligated to obey what it is says with no kind of statue interpretations , However the most of UK legislation was passed and written by the parliament which is known as statue law. Therefore the UK constitution is usually recognized as ‘partly written and wholly unwritten.’ The most influential advocate of a theory was by Dicey.Dicey have laid out three principles of parliamentary sovereignty which defines parliament sovereignty; 1) Parliament is the supreme law-making body and it may enact laws on any subject matter (British Railways Board v Pickins [1974]) . 2) No parliament may be bound by a predecessor ( a previous parliament) or may bind a successor ( a future parliament) however when there is a contradiction of legislation then the court implies the later act. 3) No person or body-including a court of law- may question the validity of parliament enactments . Courts do not interfere with proceedings in parliament such as the example of Bill of Right 1689.The Bill of Rights makes the queen subject to the will of parliament and that it also recognizes that parliament has unlimited legislative authority.Therefore the legal sovereignty of parliament was regarded by Dicey as the founding principle of the constitution.However the strictness of Dicey’s doctrine has payed

Therefore parliament can enact that future legislation repealing a previous Act should be passed by a referendum. Wade Disagrees with Jennings he argues that parliamentary supremacy was not a legal rule, but a common law that existed for as long as the judiciary believed it to reflect the political reality of the constitution.He believes that courts them self cannot make the change but it can recognize the change by a political change.The political sovereignty in a political fact of life.In the UK revolution 1689,judges just accepted as a matter of politics that parliament is supreme. In legal fact based in law only way to change parliament's supremacy is to act legal bases of constitutions. In relation to the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy constitutions or any organs of the government cannot take any higher power than parliament.Parliament is supreme. In traditional theory the courts always enforce the act of parliament. However Jenning have redefined the parliament sovereignty.In general an act of parliament is passed and amend an act with Dicey’s theory is by a combination of the House of common,the House of Lords and the queen assent, However Jennings have redefined this by taking away the House of Lords assents . Under