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18 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

UK Constitutions Key Facts



- 4 Key Facts

- The UK Constitution is uncodified, ie not found in a single written document. It is a unitary constitution featuring devolution and a constitutional monarchy



- The constitution of the UK can be found in a number of key sources: Acts of Parliament; common law; Community Law; conventions; the law and custom of Parliament; and authoritative writings



- The sovereignty of Parliament means that the UK Parliament has no legal restrictions of what laws it can pass.



- The UK courts can interpret a statue but they cannont strike it down as being in valid. It is open to the UK Parliament at any time to alter both statute law and judge-made law, in this way Parliament always has the last word.

Name the key case:

- if errors in the procedure of passing a Bill have occurred, it is for Parliament to correct them. The Court cannot question the validity of any Act of Parliament.

British Railways Board v Pickin (1974)



Name the key case:



- an example of declaration of incompatibility with the ECHR eliciting legislative change by parliament

A (and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2004)

Judiciary Essential Facts:

- Independence of the judiciary is a fundamental principle of the UK constitution.


- Judicial appointments are a matter reserved to the executive. The Lord President of the Court of Session & Lord Justice Clerk are appointed on the advise of the Prime Minister.


- Other Judges of the Court of Session, Sheriffs and Sheriffs Principle are appointed on advice of the First Minister.


- In order to become a sheriff or sheriff principle, a candidate must have been legally qualified as a solicitor or advocate for 10 years.

Name the Key Case:



-Sheriff Ewen Stewart sought judicial review of the secretary of State's order removing him from office. His attempt to challenge removal procedures was unsuccessful.

Stewart v Secretary of State for Scotland (1998)

Name the Key Case:



-an issue arose as to the compatibility of a temporarysheriff's status with an accused person's right to a fair hearing before an independent tribunal (Art6 ECHR).



The high court held that possible hopes of appointment to a permanent position, as well as the short-term nature of the office, compromised the independence of the temporary sheriff and that the most important factor was the absence of security of tenure. Accordingly, temporary sheriffs were abolished by Judicial Appointements (Scotland) Act 2000

Starrs v Ruxton (2000)

Name the Key Case:



- Challenged the use of ER II/ Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland under the Act of Union



- held there was nothing in the Act Prohibiting the style and there pursuer had no title to sue

MacCormick v Lord Advocate (1953)

Name the Key Case:



- concerned the use of perogative powers



- hotel was taken possession of to hosue army officers and governemtn argued it was done so under perogative not under the Defence Act 1842



- held that perogative powers could not be used where a statute otherwise authorised the action.

Attorney-General v De Keyser's Royal Hotel (1920)

Name the Key Case:



concered that validity of an Act of parliament passed under the Parliament Acts 1911 & 1949

Jackson v Attorney-General (2005)

Name the Key Case:



held that the use of Hansard as an aid to statutory interpretation was permitted

Pepper v Hart (1993)

Name the Key Case:



- held that the law of parliamentary privilege will extend to protect members of parliament from civil proceedings

Stourton v Stourton (1963)

Name the Key Case:



- Held that the House of Commons was not subject to control by the courts in its administratioon of internal proceedings

Bradlaugh v Gossett (1884)

Elective Dictatorship

Lord Hailsham (Quintin Hogg)

Sir Ivor Jennings

“in normal times the free tradition is extremely strong in Great Britain, … [i]n wartime and other times of national hysteria, the dissident minority can expect no more mercy or toleration from the House of Commons than from the Government itself. … In such exceptional times, the supremacy of Parliament is a very great danger, especially to minorities.”

Examples of Repressive Legislation in the UK

Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) 1954

Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner

"everything is permitted except what is expressly forbidden"

its action did not interfere with any of the plaintiff’s specific legal rights, the government was not acting unlawfully by authorising the tapping of his telephone, even though there was no express legal basis for doing so. In other words, by treating the government as legally equivalent to a citizen, the effectiveness of the presumption in favour of liberty as a protection for the individual against the state was significantly undermined.

Right to Bear Arms

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution

Irish Constitution

- Enacted in 1937

- Can be amendment by referendum




- 34th and 35th Amendments are being put to a referendum currently