Essay On Parliamentary Sovereignty

Parliamentary sovereignty has existed in the UK law ever since the 17th century. It has the power to make or evoke any law within the UK. This essay addresses whether the parliamentary sovereignty within the UK has been rendered obsolete by the EU law and the recognition of the human rights in 1998. It will be argued that parliamentary sovereignty is still a relevant doctrine within the UK parliament as the referendum concerning UK’s membership can impact the near future and bring about change, were the parliamentary sovereignty will be the primary way which decides on the laws in the UK.
The European Communities Act 1972 has been enacted by the parliament and it’s sought to bring a voluntary end to parliamentary sovereignty or at least render it as secondary. This has made the EU law a definitive supremacy as the parliament can’t make any laws that are in way of the current EU law. This is shown in the case of Costa , where the European Court of Justice shows supremacy over the member states. On the other hand the Factortame i case shows that the parliament still has control over its
This is because the UK law has to be compatible with the HRA. This essentially means that an Act of Parliament can’t breach these rights which would mean that the legislation would have to be changed. However HRA retains the Parliamentary sovereignty by allowing the parliament to change or amend the law to suit the rest. The introduction of the HRA was a shift in powers that moved power from legislature and gave it to the judges. Cases can now be heard in the UK courts rather than having them go to Strasbourg. The creation of the HRA also restricted the legislative power of the UK. This is because under section 2, judiciaries have to take into account what the Strasbourg judges are saying. However like mentioned before there are times where they don’t have to be followed (R v