Sovereignty In The UK

Ayan Ibrahimova

To what extent has the location of sovereignty in the UK changed in recent years?

Sovereignty can be seen from two different points of views. Legal sovereignty is usually associated with the supreme law-making authority in state. In England, the Parliament is the legal sovereign, because it can make and declare the will of the state in legal terms. Thus, the law that is made by the Parliament is final, is acknowledged by courts and is enforced by the executive. Furthermore, there is also political sovereignty that is considered to be above the legal sovereignty, because it obtains authority from the electorate and answers to the public for any decisions and choices that it makes. Electorate can be perceived as the political sovereign, seeing as the legislature creates laws based on the policy approved by the

Moreover, there is also parliamentary sovereignty, which is the principle of the UK constitution. This entails that the Parliament is the supreme legal authority in the UK, therefore, it has the power to create or abolish any law and the courts will not be able to overrule the Parliament’s decisions. Moreover, the future parliament cannot alter the laws passed by the pervious parliaments. Consequently, Parliament is a significant part of the UK constitution. However, recently it has been argued that the position of the parliamentary sovereignty has changed, at least partially. This can be associated with the fact that some of the laws, related to events both inside and outside the UK that the parliament has passed actually limit the power of the parliamentary sovereignty. These include, the devolution of power, the Human Rights Act in 1998, the UK’s entry to the European Union and the decision to establish a