There are three Crown dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The first two are generally known as the Channel Islands.
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Sunday 31 July 2011
Friday 29 July 2011
Burke and Blackstone on MPs and representation
The traditional view of an MP's role has been that he (and it always was a "he") was not the proxy or delegate of his constituents, but was rather entitled and obliged to take an independent view on policy questions that might conflict with his constituents' preferences.
Labels:
history,
House of Commons,
old documents,
Parliament
Sunday 17 July 2011
Parliamentary chambers
The design of the British House of Commons chamber has been copied around the world.
Labels:
House of Commons,
Parliament
Saturday 16 July 2011
Bills rejected by the House of Lords
In my last post, I considered the Salisbury convention - the convention that the Lords does not reject bills that have been trailed in the government's election manifesto. The Lords has never breached this convention, but it has occasionally voted down pieces of legislation.
Labels:
House of Lords,
Parliament,
statutes
The Salisbury convention
This post deals with the so-called Salisbury convention, which is the principal unwritten convention governing the legislative relationship between the two Houses of Parliament.
The rights to be consulted, to encourage and to warn
Walter Bagehot famously wrote in The English Constitution (1867) that the British monarch has three rights: the rights to be consulted, to encourage and to warn.
Labels:
executive,
monarchy,
royal prerogative
The written British constitution
The British constitution may be uncodified, but it is not unwritten. As Lord Scarman put it:
Labels:
cases,
constitutional principles,
statutes
The idea of the mixed or balanced constitution
One theme found in the classical writings on the British constitution is that it represents a balanced combination of monarchic, aristocratic and democratic rule. The combination of the King, the Lords and the Commons was said to provide the best possible form of government.
Labels:
constitutional principles,
history,
old documents
Blackstone on Parliament
From Blackstone's Commentaries:
Labels:
history,
Parliament,
parliamentary sovereignty
Friday 15 July 2011
The primacy of the Commons over the Lords - Part 2
Following my last post on this subject, I want to look at the way in which the Lords conceived its role in the latter part of the 19th century, with particular reference to the theories of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.
Labels:
history,
House of Lords,
Parliament
Anson on the organic development of the constitution
From Sir William Anson, The Law and Custom of the Constitution (1897):
Labels:
constitutional conventions,
history,
old documents
The primacy of the Commons over the Lords - Part 1
The Commons is the dominant chamber of Parliament, though the House of Lords is conventionally referred to as the "upper house" (and Halsbury's Laws politely calls it the "senior" house). How did the predominance of the Commons originate?
Labels:
history,
House of Lords,
Parliament
Thursday 14 July 2011
Sir John Fortescue on Parliament
From De Laudibus Legum Angliae by Sir John Fortescue (c.1394-c.1480), ch. 18:
Labels:
constitutional principles,
history,
old documents,
Parliament
Sir Edward Coke on the supremacy of Parliament
From 4 Inst 36:
Labels:
history,
old documents,
Parliament,
parliamentary sovereignty
Tuesday 12 July 2011
Mistakes in granting Royal Assent
Occasionally, mistakes are made in granting Royal Assent to Bills. It appears that the practice has been to rectify these mistakes by means of further legislation. The following is from Frederick Clifford's A History of Private Bill Legislation (1885):
Labels:
executive,
monarchy,
Parliament,
statutes
Constitutional statutes
The UK does not have a codified constitution, but certain statutes have been singled out over the years as possessing a special constitutional importance or status (the most famous being the iconic statute - or quasi-statute - known as Magna Carta).
Labels:
constitutional principles,
statutes
Friday 1 July 2011
The judicial functions of the Privy Council
See now also this speech by Lord Neuberger JSC
Following my recent general post on the Privy Council, here is some information on the council's judicial functions.
Following my recent general post on the Privy Council, here is some information on the council's judicial functions.
Labels:
judiciary,
Privy Council
The principles of the British constitution
According to Halsbury's Laws:
Labels:
constitutional principles
Sir Henry Sumner Maine on universal suffrage and referendums
From Popular Government (1886):
Labels:
history,
old documents,
referendums
Olde English constitutional laws
In this post, I want to disinter some mediaeval laws which are still on the statute book and which have some constitutional significance.
Labels:
history,
old documents,
statutes
Sir Thomas Smythe on Parliament
An early assertion of parliamentary supremacy by Sir Thomas Smyth in De Republica Anglorum (1583):
Labels:
history,
old documents,
Parliament,
parliamentary sovereignty
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