The UK Parliament makes legislation in the form of primary legislation called Acts of Parliament and grants powers to other bodies to make legislation on Parliament’s behalf, in the form of secondary legislation or delegated legislation. Parliament is composed of three bodies, the Queen in Parliament, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords. A draft piece of legislation, a bill, to become an Act of Parliament must be passed by the House of Commons and the House of Lords and then receive the royal assent. If the House of Commons and House of Lords cannot agree on legislation this is dealt with under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. Secondary or delegated legislation is necessary for a number of reasons but is subject to controls both parliamentary and in the courts.
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This chapter examines the legislative (law-making) process. In the UK, the Westminster Parliament can make primary legislation called Acts of Parliament or ‘Statutes’. Parliament can also grant powers to other bodies to make legislation on Parliament’s behalf, in the form of secondary legislation or delegated legislation. Parliament is comprised of three bodies, the Queen in Parliament, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords. A draft piece of legislation, a bill, which will become an Act of Parliament must be passed by the House of Commons and the House of Lords and then receive Royal Assent. If the House of Commons and House of Lords cannot agree on legislation this can be governed by the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. Secondary or delegated legislation is necessary for a number of reasons but is subject to controls exercised by Parliamentary and the courts.
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This chapter discusses the functions, structure, and procedures of Parliament. Parliament’s main functions are to be the forum for debate on the main issues of the day; to represent citizens; to enact legislation; and to hold the government to account. Parliament has three elements: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the monarch. The chapter focuses on the two Houses, often referred to as ‘chambers’. The main output of Parliament is legislation. There are two forms of legislation. Primary legislation, referred to as Acts of Parliament, which are the exercise of Parliament’s legal supremacy to change the law, either by making new law or amending or abolishing existing law. Parliament also has the power to delegate its law-making power to others, usually to the government, allowing them to make delegated legislation according to the terms set out by Parliament.
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Each Concentrate revision guide is packed with essential information, key cases, revision tips, exam Q&As, and more. This chapter examines domestic legislation. Domestic legislation is created by Parliament, which consists of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Monarch. It is divided into primary legislation and secondary legislation. Primary legislation takes the form of ‘Acts of Parliament’, commonly referred to as ‘statutes’. Statutes can cover a vast variety of laws including criminal law, land law, contract law, and many others. Meanwhile, secondary legislation—also known as delegated legislation or subordinate legislation—is the most common instrument for implementing change within the UK. Parliament has neither the time, the resources, nor the expertise to deal with certain matters. It is for these reasons that the majority of legislation is made outside of Parliament. Accordingly, Parliament may delegate such powers, through an Act of Parliament to other bodies and institutions to implement. Such bodies often include the Privy Council, government ministers, local authorities, and other regulatory agencies.
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This chapter explores the membership and functions of the House of Commons. The Commons' membership consists of Members of Parliament (MPs) who are democratically elected by the public to represent their interests in Parliament. The key functions of the House of Commons include sustaining the government; legislating and scrutinising government actions; authorising taxes and voting for supply to provide the government with the finances it needs to run the UK; facilitating a credible opposition; and ensuring that the voices of citizens are heard. The chapter then considers the operation of Parliamentary privilege. Parliament needs parliamentary privilege to conduct its core business effectively, independently, and without fear of outside interference, and to protect everything said or done in the transaction of parliamentary business. Indeed, Parliament is self-regulating and, as a sovereign body, operates outside the jurisdiction of the courts except for the criminal law.
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This chapter explores the role and membership of Parliament’s two chambers, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the operation of parliamentary privilege; and accountability of members. The key functions of Parliament include controlling national expenditure and taxation; sustaining the government; legislating and scrutinising government actions. The House of Commons is the pre-eminent chamber and dominates Parliament. The Commons’ membership consists of Members of Parliament (MPs) who are democratically elected by the public to represent their interests in Parliament. The membership of the House of Lords largely relies on patronage. Members of the Lords are appointed by the Queen on the Prime Minister’s advice. The House of Lords is an important revising and scrutinising chamber, and while it is subordinate to the democratically elected House of Commons, it is also a check on constitutional change by the Commons. The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 redefined the Lords’ legislative powers over public bills and established the Commons’ primacy. The chapter then considers the operation of parliamentary privilege. Parliament needs parliamentary privilege to conduct its core business effectively, independently, and without fear of outside interference, and to protect everything said or done in the transaction of parliamentary business. Indeed, Parliament is self-regulating and, as a sovereign body, operates outside the jurisdiction of the courts except for the criminal law. Each House has its own standards of conduct and disciplinary powers which ensure accountability.
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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 process of incorporation and the advantages and disadvantages of conducting business through a company. The three principal methods by which a company can be incorporated are: incorporation by Act of Parliament, incorporation by Royal Charter, and incorporation by registration. The advantages of incorporation include perpetual succession, asset ownership, and the ability to commence legal proceedings. The disadvantages of incorporation include increased formality, regulation, publicity, and civil liability.
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Steve Peers
This chapter examines the possible tension between democracy and effectiveness in the context of the EU’s political institutions: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, and the Commission. To this end, it examines in turn the composition, powers, and functioning of each of these institutions, comparing them to national systems and assessing their democratic accountability and the effectiveness of their functioning. It shows that the role of various EU institutions has evolved over time - in particular to strengthen the legislative role of the European Parliament, and that body’s control over the Commission.
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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 discusses the nature and extent of constitutional conventions, which are political rules that are binding upon those to whom they apply. They apply to the relationships between the Crown, Parliament, the judiciary, the civil service, and the executive, and play a key role in limiting the powers granted to institutions of government by unwritten rules or sources. Constitutional conventions also regulate key parts of the relationship between the institutions of government. The doctrine of ministerial responsibility is one of the most important examples of constitutional conventions regulating the behaviour of the executive. There are two main branches of ministerial responsibility. One is individual ministerial responsibility—that is, a minister’s obligation to account to Parliament for his or her words and actions and for those of his or her civil servants. The second branch of ministerial responsibility is collective ministerial responsibility. Amongst other things, collective ministerial responsibility prescribes that decisions reached by the Cabinet or other ministerial committees are binding on all members of the government, regardless of whether or not the individual ministers agree with them.
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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 provides an overview of the relationship between the European Union (EU) and the UK and the impact of this relationship on Parliament’s legislative supremacy. It begins by considering the nature of the EU and the sources of EU law. It then examines how EU membership affected the UK legal order during the UK’s membership and its implications for parliamentary supremacy. It considers the impact of Brexit and the UK–EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement on the UK’s constitutional framework.
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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 examines the nature and extent of the power that the executive uses to run the country and begins by defining executive power, and by explaining where it is derived and who may exercise it. It then discusses the mechanisms by which an executive can be called to account for its exercise of power; the extent to which Parliament may hold the government accountable; and the extent that courts may hold the government accountable.
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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.
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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 discusses the nature and extent of constitutional conventions, which are political rules that are binding upon those to whom they apply. They apply to the relationships between the Crown, Parliament, the judiciary, the civil service, and the executive, and play a key role in limiting the powers granted to institutions of government by unwritten rules or sources. Constitutional conventions also regulate key parts of the relationship between the institutions of government. The doctrine of ministerial responsibility is one of the most important examples of constitutional conventions regulating the behaviour of the executive. There are two main branches of ministerial responsibility. One is individual ministerial responsibility-that is, a minister’s obligation to account to Parliament for his or her words and actions, and for those of his or her civil servants. The second branch of ministerial responsibility is collective ministerial responsibility. Amongst other things, collective ministerial responsibility prescribes that decisions reached by the Cabinet or other ministerial committees are binding on all members of the government, regardless of whether or not the individual ministers agree with them.
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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, which examines the nature and extent of executive power, begins by defining executive power, and by explaining where it is derived and who may exercise it. It then discusses the mechanisms by which an executive can be called to account for its exercise of power; the extent to which Parliament may hold the government accountable; and the extent that courts may hold the government accountable.
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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 examines ‘primary legislation’, in the form of UK Acts of Parliament, and how they are made. The discussions cover who or what is the ‘legislature’ in the British constitution; the roles of different institutions in policymaking; drafting bills by Parliamentary Counsel; pre-legislative scrutiny of some ‘draft bills’ before the start the formal legislative process in Parliament ; the parliamentary year; parliamentary stages of a bill—first reading, second reading, committee stage, report stage, and third reading; bills of constitutional importance; the constitutional framework for bringing legislation into force; how government and Parliament carries out post-legislative scrutiny of some Acts of Parliament to review how they are operating in practice; and legislative functions in the British system of devolution.
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This chapter examines whether the House of Lords plays an effective anti-majoritarian legislative role. The variations on the theme of reforming the powers and composition of the House of Lords qua legislative body are legion, as are the pros and cons of each scheme proposed, but 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.
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This chapter explains ‘the rule of law’. It first presents a definition of the rule of law followed by a discussion of the practical protection of the rule of law. In Britain, all three of the major branches of the state — the judiciary, Parliament, and government (especially through the office of Lord Chancellor) — have functions in the development and application of rule of law principles.
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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, which provides an overview of the relationship between the European Union and the UK, and the impact of this relationship on Parliament’s legislative supremacy, begins by considering the nature of the EU and the sources of EU law. It then examines how EU membership affects the UK legal order, and its implications for parliamentary supremacy, and also discusses what the reform of the EU means for parliamentary supremacy. It considers, briefly, the impact of different Brexit options on the UK’s constitutional framework.
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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.
