LAW & CRIMINOLOGY

Courts Attitude towards European Act (1972) & Human Rights Act (1988)

Courts Attitude towards European Act (1972) & Human Rights Act (1988)

Introduction

Initially, Constitutional law is concerned with the legal foundations of the institutional hierarchy through which the state is governed (Carroll, 2011, p.5). A constitution is a body of rules which governing an organisation. Each Organisation, whether a social club, trade union or nation state has some specific goals. To achieve these objectives necessitated the contribution of the Constitution because through the Constitution, the rights and responsibilities of membership are defined in the Organisation. However, the constitution except that it assumes the provision of internal functions of the organisation, it should also emphasize on the manner in which the organisation relates to external bodies.

Discussion

A constitution considers both external and internal regulation of the body to which it relates. According to Thomas Paine stated “A constitution is not the act of a government, but of people constituting a government and a government without a constitution is power without the right, A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government; and a government is only the creature of constitution”.

A written constitution is comprised into a single document or a series of documents, with or without amendments, fixing the ground rules of the state. In Accordance with the United Kingdom has a deficiency in the codified document entitled “British Constitution”. As well-known there is no legal document which establishes the principles of power governing the framework of the state. However, this is explained through the British history (from 1066 until the current time (2013). Also, the British constitution is not having a written constitution. A large part of the British constitution has some written documents, in statutes, court judgments and treaties. The constitution has other unwritten sources, including parliamentary constitutional conventions and royal prerogatives. The British constitution defined “is the collection of legal rules and non-legal rules which govern the government in Britain” (Modern Constitutions, 1996, p.1)Parliamentary supremacy is a legal principle, meaning that a law formally made by Parliament, in the above sense, must conclusively be accepted as valid by the courts (Pickin v British Railways Board-1974) (Alder, 2011, pg. 160).

The deference between legal and political sovereignty is one insisted upon by authorities such as Sir Edward Coke, Sir William Blackstone and in particular AV Dicey. In the opinion of Dicey's, the people hold political sovereignty whilst legal sovereignty rests with the “Queen in Parliament”. In large measure, this clear demarcation between the political and the legal is explained by the unwritten nature of the United Kingdom's constitution. In the majority of states having a written constitution, the constitution defines the limits of governmental power.

Dicey viewed the doctrine of parliament in three aspects:

• The Queen in Parliament can pass any law.

•Parliament cannot bind its successors.

•The Courts do not challenge the authority of an Act of Parliament.

Firstly means that there is no limit on the subject matter on which parliament may ...