This introduction examines the ideas of constitutions as a text of fundamental importance, setting out how a country should be governed, and as a system of government. Also explored is the question why the United Kingdom has not adopted a codified constitution and the consequences of this.
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Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter explains the meaning and significance of the rule of law, briefly tracing the history of the rule of law and considering the main similarities and differences between various theories of the rule of law. It then assesses the impact of recent legal reforms on the operations of the rule of law in the UK. These reforms include the extension of detention without trial; the developing body of anti-terror legislation; and the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which reinforces the importance of the independence of the judiciary and puts measures in place to attempt to strengthen the separation of the courts from the other arms of the state. Finally, the chapter discusses judicial interpretation of the rule of law through a selection of cases that have examined the legality, irrationality, or procedural impropriety of the actions of the executive or public bodies and whether their actions conform to the Human Rights Act 1998.
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the meaning of the term ‘constitution’. It distinguishes between a written and an unwritten constitution, and outlines the special procedures for amending written constitutions. Constitutions are frequently classified according to their characteristics, and several of the more common classifications are explained in this chapter. The chapter also considers: the value of written constitutions; the unwritten nature of the UK constitution; whether the UK has a constitution; sources of the UK constitution; and the changing nature of the UK constitution. It concludes by addressing the question of whether the UK should have a written constitution.
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This chapter examines the specific functions and characteristics of constitutions in general terms—thinking of what the constitutions of Western democratic countries are typically like—rather than with particular reference to the UK, and then considers how the UK’s constitutional arrangements measure up. This is followed by three case studies that illustrate how the different topics considered in this book relate to one another, and which also provide an overview of the type—and importance—of the issues with which public law is concerned.
Book
Neil Parpworth
The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the fundamental principles and concepts of constitutional and administrative law. It is highly popular with undergraduates for its clear writing style and the ease with which it guides the reader through key principles of public law. This twelfth edition incorporates the significant developments in this ever-changing area of the law. The book also includes a range of useful features to help students get to grips with the subject matter. These include further reading suggestions to support deeper research, a large number of self-test questions to help reinforce knowledge, and chapter summaries and numbered paragraphs to aid navigation and revision. This new edition has been fully updated to cover all the latest reforms in constitutional and administrative law, including those relating to devolution and Brexit.
Book
Neil Parpworth
The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the fundamental principles and concepts of constitutional and administrative law. It is highly popular with undergraduates for its clear writing style and the ease with which it guides the reader through key principles of public law. This eleventh edition incorporates the significant developments in this ever-changing area of the law. The book also includes a range of useful features to help students get to grips with the subject matter. These include further reading suggestions to support deeper research, a large number of self-test questions to help reinforce knowledge, and chapter summaries and numbered paragraphs to aid navigation and revision. This new edition has been fully updated to cover all the latest developments in constitutional and administrative law, including those relating to devolution and Brexit.
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Paul Craig
This chapter is, for obvious reasons, not a modification of the chapter from the previous edition. It is a completely new chapter, which considers the effect of Brexit on the UK constitution. There is discussion of the constitutional implications of triggering exit from the EU, and whether this could be done by the executive via the prerogative, or whether this was conditional on prior legislative approval through a statute. The discussion thereafter considers the constitutional implications of Brexit in terms of supremacy, rights, executive accountability to the legislature and devolution. The chapter concludes with discussion as to the paradox of sovereignty in the context of Brexit.
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Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. Concentrates show you what to expect in a law exam, what examiners are looking for, and how to achieve extra marks. This chapter discusses the definition of constitutional law and the characteristics of the British Constitution. Constitutional law looks at a body of legal rules and political arrangements concerning the government of a country. A constitution may take the form of a document or set of documents which declare that a country and its chosen form of government legitimately exists. The British Constitution is largely unwritten, flexible in nature, and based on absolute parliamentary sovereignty. The UK is also a unitary state. There is a central government, as well as devolved legislative and executive bodies in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England. It is also a constitutional monarchy. This means that the head of state is a king or queen and that they exercise their powers in and through a parliamentary system of government in which the members of the executive are accountable to a sovereign parliament.
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This chapter considers the evolving constitutional status of the royal prerogative in the courts during the twentieth century. The discussions cover the relationship between statute, the prerogative, and the rule of law; the traditional perspective on judicial review of prerogative powers and the rejection of that traditional perspective in the House of Lords’ judgment in Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service (GCHQ). The chapter continues by analysing the ways in which the new organising principle of ‘justiciability’ which emerged in the GCHQ judgment in the 1980s has since been applied in several leading cases, and suggests that in recent years the courts have adopted an increasingly rigorous approach to the supervision of governmental actions claimed to be taken under prerogative powers.
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This chapter begins by discussing the origins and meaning of the term ‘royal prerogative’. It identifies some examples of prerogative powers and considers how certain personal or reserve powers of the monarch might be exercised in practice. The chapter also explores the relationship between prerogative power and statutes, and focuses on how the courts have dealt with the prerogative. The chapter also discusses the adaptation of prerogative powers, the relationship between the prerogative and the courts, and the courts’ recent willingness to review the exercise of certain prerogative powers. The chapter concludes by looking at several ways in which the prerogative could be reformed.
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Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter outlines the characteristics of the UK constitution, which is not a traditional written constitution and, thus, is defined as an ‘unwritten’ constitution. It is not hierarchically superior to all other law in the country, which means that Acts of Parliament cannot be compared with it by judges and be declared as unconstitutional and invalid. Neither can the UK constitution be enforced against the legislature as a result, nor is it entrenched and protected, because it can always be changed by Act of Parliament. However, it can be legally enforced by the mechanism of judicial review against the executive, meaning that the executive may legally act only within its legal power. The chapter also considers the sources that make up the UK constitution and proposed constitutional reforms.
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This chapter explains the important role that public law, particularly administrative law, plays in environmental law. This role comes about because much of environmental law requires vesting decision-making and regulatory power in the hands of public decision-makers at all levels of government. This chapter begins by providing an overview of the different constituent elements of public law: constitutional law, administrative law, the role of the EU and international law, as well the complexities of this area of law. The chapter then moves on to consider the way in which the different types of interests involved in environmental problems and the need for information and expertise provide challenges for public law. The chapter then provides an overview of four major features of public law that are particularly relevant to environmental lawyers: the Aarhus Convention, accountability mechanisms, judicial review, and human rights.
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This chapter examines the supremacy of EU law from both the point of view of the Union, as understood by the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the point of view of member states. A consensus seems to be emerging from the national and constitutional courts that EU law supremacy is accepted only in so far as it does not infringe the individual rights protection of the national constitutions, in which case the constitutional courts will exercise their reserved rights over national constitutions to uphold them over inconsistent EU law or to review EU law in light of their own constitutions.
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This chapter provides an overview of public law, introducing the key institutions, principles, and practices that characterise the constitutional arrangements of the United Kingdom.
Book
Andrew Le Sueur, Maurice Sunkin, and Jo Eric Khushal Murkens
Public Law: Text, Cases, and Materials offers a fresh approach to the study of constitutional and administrative law. It provides clear and insightful commentary on the key institutions, legal principles, and conventions, and blends this with a carefully selected and diverse range of materials and case studies. Part I covers the fundamentals of the constitution. Part II examines the executive function including protecting rights, government and accountability Part III looks at the legislative function including primary and delegated legislation, European Union treaties, and legislative processes. Part IV considers judicial and dispute resolution functions in terms of the judiciary, tribunals, the ombuds human rights, and constitutional change; Part V examines the European Union, including th institutions of the European Union, joining and leaving the Union and European Law in the UK courts.
Book
Andrew Le Sueur, Maurice Sunkin, and Jo Eric Khushal Murkens
Public Law: Text, Cases, and Materials offers a fresh approach to the study of constitutional and administrative law. It provides clear and insightful commentary on the key institutions, legal principles, and conventions, and blends this with a carefully selected and diverse range of materials and case studies. Part I covers the fundamentals of the constitution. Part II examines the executive function including protecting rights, government and accountability. Part III looks at the legislative function including primary and delegated legislation, European Union treaties, and legislative processes. Part IV considers judicial and dispute resolution functions in terms of the judiciary, tribunals, the ombuds human rights, and constitutional change. Part V examines the European Union, including the institutions of the European Union and joining and leaving the Union.
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This first chapter examines the idea of a constitution as a text of fundamental importance and as a system of government. Constitution as ‘text’ and ‘system’ both set out how a country is and should be governed. The United Kingdom clearly has a constitution but it is not written down, or codified, in a single text. This is very unusual: almost every other country has a written codified constitution. The chapter explores the question why the United Kingdom has not adopted a codified text of its constitution and the consequences of this which include enabling aspects of the constitution to be easily changed while retaining the overall stability of the system.
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This chapter discusses the UK’s constitutional arrangements, and in particular, four important issues concerning the UK constitution, of which it is necessary to be aware at the outset. First, it sets out the three key themes that emerge from the study of contemporary UK public law, and second, examines the sources of the UK constitution. Third, the chapter addresses a number of principles that occupy a central role in UK public law, before finally considering whether the UK should adopt a written, or codified, constitution.
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This chapter discusses the substantive grounds of judicial review: illegality, irrationality, and proportionality. Illegality covers the following: excess of power; the relevant/irrelevant considerations doctrine; unlawful delegation of power; unlawful fettering of power; and the estoppel doctrine. Irrationality is also concerned with the substantive content of a government decision, but focuses on the political or moral rather than (in the strict sense) legal character of the decision. Proportionality review can be defined as a constitutional device that requires the courts to accept that the boundaries of moral consensus within which government bodies are confined are discernibly less broad in substantive terms than those that apply in respect of irrationality-based review.
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This chapter examines whether the House of Lords plays an effective anti-majoritarian legislative role. The chapter begins by discussing the changing nature of the relationship between the Commons and the Lords in the post-revolutionary era, focusing in particular on the emergence in the early nineteenth century of a political presumption that the Lords was becoming the inferior partner within Parliament and on the passage of the Parliament Act 1911 in which legal force was given to that political presumption. The chapter also addresses the various proposals put forward in the modern era to reform both the composition and the powers of the House of Lords, and suggests that most reform plans present a paradox. The more we ask a second chamber to perform functions complementary to those of the Commons, the more we demand of its members that they be (as individuals and as a body) ‘expert’, ‘experienced’, and ‘nonpartisan’, and so the more we reveal the crushing dominance of party politics in the lower house, and the incapacity and/or unwillingness of backbench MPs to exert a restraining influence on government activities. This suggests that the key division within the legislative process is now not Lords versus Commons, nor Labour versus Conservative, but party versus national interest. The final part of the chapter explores a more obviously ‘legal’ question; namely the implications of the Parliament Act 1911 for traditional understandings of the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty.
