TY - JOUR
T1 - Parliamentary sovereignty and popular sovereignty in the UK constitution
AU - Goldsworthy, Jeffrey
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - Rivka Weill claims that in the nineteenth century the foundation of the UK constitution changed from parliamentary sovereignty to popular sovereignty, originally as a matter of constitutional convention but today as a matter of law. I argue, to the contrary, that parliamentary sovereignty as a legal principle and popular sovereignty as a political principle are perfectly compatible. Constitutional conventions are essentially political not legal requirements. Therefore, a constitutional convention requiring popular approval of constitutional change, if it ever existed, would not have violated parliamentary sovereignty. But if it did exist, it was displaced by the Parliament Act 1911 and has not been revived since. Moreover, there is no evidence that courts today have legal authority to enforce any requirement, conventional or legal, requiring such approval.
AB - Rivka Weill claims that in the nineteenth century the foundation of the UK constitution changed from parliamentary sovereignty to popular sovereignty, originally as a matter of constitutional convention but today as a matter of law. I argue, to the contrary, that parliamentary sovereignty as a legal principle and popular sovereignty as a political principle are perfectly compatible. Constitutional conventions are essentially political not legal requirements. Therefore, a constitutional convention requiring popular approval of constitutional change, if it ever existed, would not have violated parliamentary sovereignty. But if it did exist, it was displaced by the Parliament Act 1911 and has not been revived since. Moreover, there is no evidence that courts today have legal authority to enforce any requirement, conventional or legal, requiring such approval.
KW - 1949
KW - A.V. Dicey
KW - constitutional convention
KW - Parliament Acts 1911
KW - parliamentary sovereignty
KW - popular sovereignty
KW - referendums
KW - UK constitution
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140613460&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0008197322000022
DO - 10.1017/S0008197322000022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85140613460
SN - 0008-1973
VL - 81
SP - 273
EP - 293
JO - The Cambridge law journal
JF - The Cambridge law journal
IS - 2
ER -