These are summarized notes on the Parliamentary sovereignty of the England parliament plus there is a comparison with the European Union. It includes a ready-made introduction for the essay, UK parliament's view, UK court's view, ECJ's view, and post-Brexit situation. These notes are compiled from ...
Parliamentary sovereignty
The transition of England to its modern post war democratic form after two world wars and a
coming to end of an empire because of the glorious revolution, brought about a significant change
to the arrangements. In the United Kingdom the absence of a written and codified constitution
creates a vacuum of supremacy which is the filled by the parliament. The political supremacy lies
with the people and the legal supremacy vests with the parliament. The doctrine of parliamentary
sovereignty gives the UK Parliament a law-making power which is legally unlimited. AV Dicey
demonstrates this as “the House of Commons, House of Lords and the Queen can together ‘make or
unmake any law whatever’, and no court or any other body can override the legislation which is
produced.”
Membership of EU
The membership of European union has given birth to doubts regarding the supremacy of the
parliament which was believed to be omnipotent after the glorious revolution.
The uk acceded to the EEC by the treaty of Brussels in 1972 after which UK had to take appropriate
steps to accommodate Community law within its legal system. This was achieved through the
passing of the European Communities act 1972, which officially made Uk a part of the European
union.
Section 2(1) of the ECA 1972 gave effect to the rules of the Community law within UK, as it has
within all of its member states. This section not only gives effect to the current rules of the
community law but also to all the future rules when the will be passed.
The authority of legislating for the United Kingdom had first been with the parliament only but with
this section the first major impact is that now the Community organs can also legislate for the uk.
However, the community institutions still do not have the general legislative power. They have
limited actions as authorized under the treaties. Law that is made by the EU parliament must
specify the correct legal basis for it by identifying an appropriate treaty provision as justification, if
it fails to do so it can be challenged and held void, such happened In Germany V EC Commission
(1987) and UK V EC Council (1996)
Section 2(4) of the ECA 1972 contains the instructions for the UK courts on how to apply the
community law. Which says that if a conflict arises between the community law and the local law,
the courts are to interpret the domestic law in such a way that it becomes compatible with the EU
law. Lord Diplock said “This clause is designed to ensure that the courts when they are construing
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