parliamentary sovereignty

   Parliamentary sovereignty is often said to be a cardinal element of the British constitution. Constitutional experts such as A. V. Dicey have proclaimed that Parliament has legal sovereignty (absolute and unlimited authority), in that it is the supreme lawmaking body in Great Britain. Only Parliament can make, amend and unmake law, and no other institution can override its decisions. Thus no one Parliament can bind its successor.

   Membership of European organisations has imposed some limitations on parliamentary sovereignty. The signing of the European Convention on Human Rights and membership of the European Union both imply that any British government must modify its law to take account of European wishes. European law ultimately prevails over British law, as was most clearly indicated in the Factortame case. Yet even before such European cases began to make an impact, parliamentary sovereignty was a questionable notion. It implies that Parliament is supreme and all-powerful, yet in the twentieth century it is widely agreed that power has passed from Parliament to the Executive both because of the growing scale of government and the consequent difficulties of achieving effective parliamentary control, and because of the extent of party discipline. Any government armed with a large majority has a good chance of pushing its programme through and sceptics argue that if the doctrine implies that Parliament has real power, the truth is that it usually acts as a rubber stamp for governmental action. Devolution and judicial review have created further challenges to parliamentary supremacy.