In popular consciousness, archivists (when noticed at all, and not confused with Indiana Jones) are usually otherworldly, whey-faced […]

The United Kingdom Constitutional Law Association (UKCLA) is the UK’s national body of constitutional law scholars affiliated to the International Association of Constitutional Law. Its object is t…

Jan 22, 2025 · The Supreme Court will hear the appeal in R (Jwanczuk) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (UKSC/2023/0152) on 11 and 12 March 2025. One of the issues is the circumstances in which courts in England and Wales may depart from decisions of appellate courts in Northern Ireland and Scotland regarding laws of inter-jurisdictional operation (that is, laws passed by the Westminster Parliament ...

Feb 21, 2023 · On 8 February, the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous judgment in Re Allister [2023] UKSC 5. What follows is an attempt to clarify the judgment’s significance for the doctrine of constitutional statutes, as first canvassed by Laws LJ in Thoburn v Sunderland City Council [2002] EWHC 195 (Admin). I think that the Court’s remarks in Re Allister can be read…

Posts about Parliamentary sovereignty written by UKCLA. Introduction: The Supreme Court’s Textual Fidelity The UK Supreme Court (UKSC) recently issued its unanimous judgment which found the draft Scottish […]

Nov 16, 2021 · With the UK in the midst of its latest political corruption crisis, the question of the (in)adequacy of the current infrastructure concerning standards in public life is once more in the spotlight.Immediately prior to the parliamentary farce over the Owen Paterson lobbying affair, the Committee on Standards in Public Life published a significant report, Upholding Standards in …

Oct 18, 2021 · Parliamentary sovereignty has traditionally been understood to mean that Parliament is free to enact legislation on any area of law that it chooses, and that Acts of the U.K. Parliament take precedence over subordinate legislation, regulation, or common law rule. Understood this way, parliamentary sovereignty is a constitutional principle that is couched explicitly in legal…

Feb 20, 2024 · A very thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of the balance between courts and parliament through the prism of ouster clauses. Essentially the question is whether the courts should continue their policy of polite wilful ignorance of the purposes of the govt in introducing these ouster clauses. ”of course you couldn’t possibly want to do something so silly” the courts argue, in response ...

Thank you so much for your blog. You wrote lot of valuable information in your blog. Now I read your article attentively. I like your post. Thanks for your great post.

May 20, 2024 · *Editors’ Note: This post is part of the ‘Unwritten Constitutional Norms and Principles Blog Series’* In 2021 the then Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland QC MP cited the principle of legality as an example of an aspect of public law that might ‘take on a life of [its] own, and lead to the courts overreaching.’ In the simplest terms, the principle of …