The Doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty Can No Longer Me Regarded as a Part of Uk Constitutional Law

The traditional concept of parliamentary sovereignty is a deep-rooted belief of parliament’s supremacy within the British Constitution. In the words of Dicey, parliamentary sovereignty is Parliaments “right to make or unmake any law whatever…no person or body is recognised by law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament”. Parliament sets the ultimate precedent; it cannot be bound by itself and all lower authorities are bound by parliamentary legislation. Is this still the case today?

In order to answer this, parliamentary sovereignty must be evaluated from both an international and a national perspective. Nationally, although Parliament continues to hold the majority of power, certain events have destabilised Parliament’s position of supreme power. Take for instance the devolution of power to bodies such as the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly and Welsh Assembly. These devolved bodies can pass primary legislation without the consent of Parliament. In terms of the Diceyan doctrine, devolved governments denote the decline of Parliament as the absolute authority within the UK as Parliament is no longer the only body that can create legislation. Nonetheless although Parliament is no longer the only law-making body, it still maintains some form of power over the devolved bodies. Under extreme conditions Parliament holds the ability to suspend or even dissolve the devolved government.

On a domestic level, based on the positive limb of the Diceyan orthodoxy, Parliament’s omnipotent nature principally means Parliament can pass or repeal any legislation. A prime example of this is the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 in which the powers of the House of Lords were limited (i.e. reducing the amount of time they could delay a Bill) in favour of the House of Commons. This diversion from customary procedure has the effect of both affirming and impairing parliamentary sovereignty: by binding the House of Lords to...