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Parliamentary Sovereignty

The orthodox view

The orthodox view is that Parliament is legally ‘sovereign’.

What does Parliamentary Sovereignty mean?

Parliamentary sovereignty means that Parliament has sovereign law-making supreme powers.

Parliament can pass, amend or repeal any primary legislation in the UK.

Historical Development of Parliamentary Sovereignty

Post 1688

The Bill of Rights 1688 is a political source of parliamentary sovereignty. The Crown took the thrown accepting that Parliament was sovereign. This was a political contract between the Crown and Parliament.

A.V. Dicey’s orthodox theory of Parliamentary Sovereignty

Parliament can make or unmake any law on any subject matter. The courts must obey this.
No Parliament is bound by its predecessors or can bind its successors.
No body, including a court of law, can question the validity of an Act of Parliament.

Model 1: Wade and Continuing Sovereignty

Parliament is fully sovereign, sovereignty is fixed (or ‘continuing’), it is impossible for Parliament to do anything that would limit its own powers.

Continuing vs self-embracing sovereignty

Wade argues the UK has a continuing sovereignty, which cannot be destroyed and therefore, cannot entrench legislation.

Model 2: Self-embracing sovereignty

The self-embracing model agrees with A.V Dicey’s theory that Parliament is sovereign. However, it disagrees with the fact that entrenchment is not possible.

The proponents of the new view

The proponents of the new view argue that entrenchment is possible.
Their central argument is that Parliament is and should be capable of laying binding conditions on how and what form legislation is to be enacted.

Model 3: EU law is a substantive limit on Parliament’s law-making authority