Sovereignty In The UK

Parliament sovereignty in its simplest form means the right to make, change or abolish any law (Haywood ???). Haywood (???) also discusses legal sovereignty as the ‘right’ to command obedience and political sovereignty as the ‘power’ to command obedience. Haywood goes on to discuss internal sovereignty as being the power authority within a given state such as the UK. External sovereignty would relate to the state/UK within the international spectrum and how the state uses its power to influence or be influenced by other states. This ability is said to be sovereign as there is no other power source in the UK that can override parliament legislation. Therefore, if parliament is sovereign it has power. Power defined by Dhal (1957) as the

The parliament was given its authority by the voting system within the UK which gave the parliament legitimacy to make, amend or abolish laws. The UK then seen the 1911 and 1949 Parliament Acts that have further reduced the powers of the HOL and concentration of power in the HOL and its executive the prime minister. If the HOL introduces a law and the majority of the HOL agrees the law will be passed. The UK has an internal convention that it will go through steps to allow a royal assent of the law however this does not have to be followed as it is not law, again this shows the parliament as having absolute power/sovereignty. This change of powers sees sovereignty shift from the monarch to parliament. Monarch powers are passed to the head of parliament the prime minister and are called prerogative powers which sees the UK parliament as having parliament sovereignty as it has the power to declare war or move troops. Prerogative allow Ministers to legislate without the consent of Parliament. With the parliament being voted for within the UK democracy system the parliament is sovereign and has political sovereignty (Haywood ???) However, this political sovereignty can be limited by pressure groups, business and financial interests along with public opinion especially around general election proceedings. According to Dicey (???) the political sovereignty is within the hands of the

There are two types of rights Civil Liberties and Civil Rights. The HRA and common law is where the UK citizen finds their rights. Common law is our residual rights where we can do anything we want unless it breaks the law, these are negative rights and should not be interfered with included in Sections 3 and 4 of the ECHR. These residual rights are available to all as in the case of Malone 1984 where phones were tapped. The current law did not meet the requirements of section 8 of the HRA and new legislation had to be produced. Civil Rights are found in the Equality Act 2010 and these are positive rights, the government can and should participate to ensure that the citizen can engage in their civil liberties. Issues occur when laws go against our civil liberties which are found in Articles 1-15 of the HRA. The UK parliament can pass any law it chooses, no other source can eradicate our rights under the convention when there is a primary piece of legislation.