What is Sovereignty and where does it lie in the UK?


What is Sovereignty?

“ Sovereignty is the legitimate and exclusive right to exercise power within a given area”

In other words – Sovereignty is Supreme Power.


Different types of sovereignty exist:

~ Legal Sovereignty: where Supreme Power lies according to the law

~ Political Sovereignty: where Supreme Power lies in reality

~ Pooled Sovereignty (In the EU, a supranational organisation, decisions are made by European Institutions on which all members are represented, but none has a overall say)

[Most democratic political systems have both the separation of powers and checks and balances to prevent a single institution becoming omnipotent.]

What is Parliamentary Sovereignty?

Parliamentary Sovereignty is regarded as the main principle of the British Constitution. In other words, Parliament holds the supreme authority in the UK.

AV Dicey wrote that Parliament “has under the British Constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament”.

In what ways is Parliament sovereign?

~ Parliament has the ultimate political authority. Most key decisions (but not all, as some military and foreign decisions are in the hands of the PM) must be approved by Parliament.

~ All powers exercised by ministers (except for the prerogative powers of the PM), devolved governments, local governments and other public bodies are granted by parliament and can be removed by Parliament.

~ All new primary legislation must be passed by parliament and secondary legislation made by ministers can be overruled by Parliament.

~ Parliament is not bound by its predecessors (i.e. past Parliaments cannot control the actions of the current Parliament).

~ Parliament cannot bind its successors (i.e. it cannot pass laws that cannot be repealed or amended by future Parliaments).
Is Parliament really Sovereign?

Parliamentary sovereignty has been undermined in a number of areas:

~ Political Parties:


Since the reductions in the power of the House of Lords in 1911 and 1949, the balance of power has shifted to the House of Commons. Combined with the dominance of political parties in elections since the start of the C20, this has led to tight party control over MP’s and disciplined parliamentary groups that make the business of the House of Commons very predictable.

~ Executive:

Practical reality dictates that the British Government is the majority party in the House of Commons. Strong party discipline makes this majority reliable and almost guarantees the Government victory in Commons votes – an ‘Elective Dictatorship’. Also backed by the Civil Service ‘machine’ it is easy to argue that sovereignty actually lies with the executive not Parliament. However, Prime Ministers who systematically repress the powers of party and parliament tend to meet their fate – Margaret Thatcher is a classic example of this.

~ Public:

At least once every five years the House of Commons is re-elected, and so at that point sovereignty really lies with the people. However, after the general election sovereignty returns to Parliament for the next five years.

~ European Union:
When Britain signed the Treaty of Rome in 1973 it accepted that the status of European law is superior to British law. This has given British courts the power of judicial review over Acts of Parliament. Therefore courts can scrutinise Acts of Parliament, refer them to the European Court of Justice and even suspend those Acts. However, Parliament is free to withdraw Britain from the EU at any time, so technically sovereignty still lies with Parliament


http://www.thinkhistory.btinternet.c...overeignty.htm