PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY

Parliamentary Sovereignty

Parliamentary Sovereignty

Introduction

Parliamentary Sovereignty which is also knows as legislative supremacy or parliamentary supremacy is an idea which is present in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. According this concept, the legislative body in the case of U.K, the Queen, the Lords and the Commons, are help supreme over all other law governing or law making institutions. They are supreme and their authority is final and unchallengeable. They have the authority to change any existing or previous legislation or even to completely abolish it, if that what they choose to do. It holds as a complete opposite to the popular sovereignty concept and the separation of power idea. Since they distribute the decision's authority either among the general populace or the laws created are susceptible to changes under previously described situations.



Discussion

Parliamentary sovereignty refers to the absence of any legal constraint upon the legislative power of the United Kingdom Parliament. The definition is given by A.V Dicey (Law of the Constitution, pp. 39-40):

As mentioned above, the idea of Parliamentary Sovereignty in the U.K. means that the Parliament i.e. The Lords, Queen, and the House of Commons, posses the right to enforce or abolish any law or legislative they chose, that no body, organization or person possess rights or authority to challenge that decision to overrule or cast it aside under the eyes of the law of England. Hence in other words, total Sovereignty is held only by the Parliament.

The House of Commons are 650 people or 'members of the Parliament' who are elected by the people of U.K. They propose and consider new laws, critique the existing Government Policies by interviewing ministers' and asking them various questions. These interviews or Q/A sessions can be held either in the in Committees or Commons Chambers Since there is no legal restraint for the Parliament, three aspects may arise from it.

The negative side of this concept is that once the Parliament passes, any law, judgement or legislative, there can be no refusal of the validity of or authenticity of it, regardless of the consequences.

The Parliament is not by its predecessors or in turn can it bind its successors. The positive aspect is that this Parliament reserves the right to legislate on any matter whatsoever of the state. In another context according to Dicey himself, sovereignty is

“It is limited on every side by the possibility of popular resistance.”

The validity of ...